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A long day for Robyn Valentine.
Standing in a packed Capitol hallway, the Corpus Christi-based drag performer can be seen with her pink wig, stage makeup and baby blue clown outfit with a ruffle collar and tulle sleeves. The look took about three hours to put together.
“I woke up around 1 in the morning, just to get ready to be dragged,” he said.
For him, being in drag has always been natural.
“I’ve always felt drawn to femininity,” she says. “Drag showed me an outlet where I could embrace femininity as a gay man, but also do it in an artistic way.”
This is also business. Valentine has been a drag entertainer for over a decade, and in recent years he’s been performing live and hosting his own shows. And after the economic shutdowns due to COVID-19, he said one of his biggest focuses is working with local businesses — something that “creates a sense of community.”
But now, he worries that Republican legislation designed to limit some drag shows — in addition to increasing threats and protests against these shows — could take away much of what he’s built. So it was a no-brainer for him to drive four hours from the coast to Austin early in the morning to fight these bills, which he says target a minority group instead of protecting those child, as the bill’s authors say.
“I came here because the attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community will not stop,” Valentine said. “I fear for the future and what this could mean for my community and my own safety, so we have to draw a line in the sand now.”
Several other drag performers said they felt the same way as they gathered Thursday around the rotunda and then inside the Senate chamber — many of them in high heels, bigger wigs and brighter clothes — to their voices will be heard in Senate Bill 12 and Senate Bill 1601.
“I was nervous. I was scared. I’ve even had to cancel a show because I’ve had serious anxiety about it,” said Brigitte Bandit, an Austin-based drag performer wearing a bright pink floor-length gown and a large pink wig. “But in the end, what do I do? Hide? I can’t hide. I have to keep fighting for these things to be and be seen.
During Thursday’s Senate State Affairs Committee hearing, many drag performers and their allies testified against these bills, outnumbering the bills’ supporters. Opponents of the legislation also say Republican-led efforts to criminalize some drag shows are attacks on Texans’ First Amendment rights, while others as the legislation takes away the rights of Texas parents to decide what content or culture their children are exposed to.
On the other hand, a smaller contingent of supporters of the bills say that the law is necessary to protect children from sexual materials.
Filed by Republican state Senator Bryan Hughes of Mineola, SB 12 would impose a $10,000 fine on business owners who host drag shows in front of children — if those shows are sexually oriented. The bill defines a sexually oriented performance in which a person is naked or in drag and “appeals to cautious sexual interests.” The US Supreme Court defined lewd interests as “erotic, lascivious, abnormal, indecent, shameful, shameful, or indecent interest in the naked, sexual, or dirty.”
Compared to several other Republican proposals seeking to restrict drag shows — including Senate Bill 476 previously filed by Hughes — SB 12 watered down the proposed ban on drag shows. But demonstrators and their allies said the bill’s language was unclear.
“The proposed bill was left vague enough to scare people away from the interpretation,” Valentine said before the hearing. “I’ve seen a lot of different people suggest different interpretations.”
During Thursday’s hearing, Democratic Sen. José Menéndez of San Antonio expressed similar concerns about SB 12.
“I’m concerned that what this will do is put a target on the back of certain people in certain businesses,” he said.
Hughes also filed SB 1601, which would withhold state funds from municipal libraries that host events where drag performers read children’s books to children.
These libraries do not receive their operating funding directly from the state, according to a statement from the Texas Library Association. Instead, libraries get money through competitive grant programs run by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the association said — about $2 million is distributed each year. SB 1601 would stop libraries that host drag shows from receiving those grants the year after the events are held, TLA said.
Baylor Johnson, the marketing and public information program manager for the Austin Public Library, opposed SB 1601. In the past three years, the Austin Public Library has hosted at least two drag queen storytime programs at the request of members, which he said was age appropriate and got positive responses from families.
“The Austin Public Library supports a parent’s right to make decisions about what types of learning or entertainment experiences are appropriate for their child,” Johnson said. “Will a female librarian wearing a Santa hat and beard to read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ hurt state library funding?”
Opponents of the bills also talk about the importance of drag shows to the Texas economy, with these events drawing patrons to restaurants and bars to serve as an economic driver for small business owners. business. They have also become an important way to raise funds for charities.
Janson Woodlee, speaking on behalf of the Equality Alliance, an LGBTQ advocacy and philanthropic organization in Central Texas, confirmed that drag shows are a central part of the organization’s annual “Unite The Fight Gala.” Woodlee said last year’s gala raised more than $200,000 for LGBTQ organizations in Texas.
Meanwhile, less than a dozen supporters of the bills spoke at Thursday’s hearing. They say the law is needed to protect children from explicit materials and displays.
“Bringing children around sexual content is a targeted assault on their minds and bodies that should never be tolerated in a civilized society,” said Kelly Neidert, a conservative activist and founder of Protect Texas Kids, an organization that protests drag events.
Protect Texas Kids has been part of at least 14 drag event protests since it was founded before Pride Month in June.
But opponents of the bill said lawmakers are focusing on the wrong issue when they’re trying to protect children. Instead, they asked lawmakers to focus their attention on gun violence or sexual abuse of church members.
Furthermore, they say that drag is just an art form that shouldn’t be attacked.
“Banning drag – an art form – in any way is a direct attack on my basic rights as an American and as a performer,” said Jay Thomas, a resident in Austin doing drag as Bobby Pudrido.
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