In the 1990s, book banning was synonymous with fascism and Fahrenheit 451. Now, people just think of Florida(Opens in a new window) and Texas(Opens in a new window). If it isn’t indecent exposure and vaping in front of a pregnant woman at a public showing of Beetlejuice(Opens in a new window), repealing child labor laws for hazardous jobs(Opens in a new window), or the growing number of Republicans found with child pornography(Opens in a new window), Republicans are doing whatever they can do to pass laws in the name of “protecting children.” By that, I don’t mean gun reform. Content banning and censorship is picking up wind in the land of the free. The banning of books slid quickly into trying to ban a class of people from the public eye: drag performers. A Texas federal judge decided that he wasn’t having any of it. From Reuters(Opens in a new window):
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Tuesday that the state’s new law limiting public drag performances was an unconstitutional restriction on speech and he permanently forbid enforcement of it.
“Not all people will like or condone certain performances,” U.S. District Judge David Hittner wrote. “This is no different than a person’s opinion on certain comedy or genres of music, but that alone does not strip First Amendment protection.”
The ruling held that drag performances weren’t inherently obscene. And while a reasonable reader would probably respond with a “duh” — RuPaul’s Drag Race would cost Bravo a hell of a lot more to broadcast — it puts drag performance on a better legal foundation in Texas. It now joins Tennessee, Montana, and Florida, all states where federal judges ruled against laws that penalized drag.
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If this or some similar law makes it all the way up to the Supreme Court, it would be interesting to see how it would limit performances, drag or otherwise. For example, the clause in the law that banned “prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics” in public would have applied to some very iconic moments in music history, drag or not.
Take Madonna’s iconic bra for example:
I hate buying bras. This new one makes me look like I have on Madonna's pointy bra. I might accidently put someones eye out. pic.twitter.com/jWjg2LzpDa(Opens in a new window)
— 🔞IFlewTheTardis🏴🏳️🌈 (@IFlewTheTardis) May 5, 2021(Opens in a new window)
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All in all, I very sincerely doubt any drag show will be more public than the time the NFL broadcast Prince’s faux penis to millions of viewers:
Really wanted to see Prince Guitar Penis in that montage pic.twitter.com/4VAwq3LMRq(Opens in a new window)
— Zero Drip (@Josh_ADHD) February 5, 2018(Opens in a new window)
Three cheers for free speech!
US judge Throws Out Texas Ban On Drag Acts, Calls It Unconstitutional(Opens in a new window) [Reuters]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s(Opens in a new window). He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor(Opens in a new window), and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent(Opens in a new window).