Bill would ban drag performances in public schools and libraries

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Some Alabama lawmakers want to ban drag performances in public libraries and schools, but opponents fear the bill might have broader implications when it comes to self-expression and First Amendment rights. 

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Scott Stadthagen, said the bill is about parental rights and protecting kids.

“We’ve seen in recent years different shows with men dressing as women indoctrinating our kids,” Stadthagen said at a recent public hearing. “The problem is, we don’t have to have kids in that type of environment. And that’s what this bill prevents.”

Stadthagen did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

But lawmakers advocating for the bill worried that drag readings may be happening in front of children regularly. They agreed that these are inappropriate events for children, either through music or costume choices made by the performers. 

Jeonna Mims is a drag performer from Birmingham. Mims argued decency laws already regulate anything sexual in the performance and creating a new law is unnecessary. 

“If lawmakers would put that amount of effort into educating people on what the laws that are already in place are, it would probably go a lot further,” Mims said.

While Mims has not personally held a drag reading, they said readings are designed to be educational and performers are careful to tailor their content for kids. 

“These events are there to teach kids that there is love and acceptance out there for them, even when their families don’t extend it to them,” Mims said.

Democratic Rep. Marilyn Lands wondered whether drag performances are common enough in these environments to cause so much concern at all. 

“It seems to be very reactive to me,” Lands said. “I feel like we’re making problems where there really aren’t any.” 

Lands pointed out the bill does not address any sexual content in the readings. 

It instead defines a drag performance as involving a performer exhibiting a sex identity that is different from the sex assigned to the performer at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers. Lands said that wording leaves too much open to interpretation

“The bill is so vaguely worded that I think almost anything could not pass muster,” Lands said.  

She wondered whether under the bill, someone might take issue with her wearing pants in a library or school. 

“Theater performances in schools often will have performers that are assigned regardless of the gender of the performer,” Hunter Fuller, with the Alabama Transgender Rights Coalition, said. “Or let’s say you had a class presentation and you wanted to dress up as the person you are presenting about. If a girl tried to present as George Washington, that would be something that would be prevented by this bill.”

Fuller worried that even the word “performance” can be open to interpretation, for instance, to be stretched to include performing job duties in the workplace. 

Ultimately, Fuller doesn’t believe the lawmakers who wrote the bill were thinking about drag performances at all. 

“Lawmakers write the bill to affect trans folks,” Fuller said. “It’s very deliberate in my view. We focus on the far reaching implications of the bill because lawmakers often see us as performing something or doing something in that regard. But we just want to go to our jobs. We just want to live our lives.”

The bill passed out of a House committee last month. It will now be considered by the full House.