A member of the Texas Legislature has filed a bill that would enable minors to bring legal action against drag performers who knowingly perform inappropriately with children in attendance.
Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) filed House Bill 4378 to create a “cause of action for drag performances performed in the presence of a minor.”
The bill defines a drag performance as one “in which a performer exhibits a gender that is different than the performer’s gender recorded at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers, and sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs in a lascivious manner before an audience.”
“Lascivious” is clarified to mean “conduct of a sexual nature that is offensive to community standards of decency. The term includes the intentional exposure of genitalia in the presence of a minor.”
Under Toth’s proposal, “An individual who attends a drag performance as a minor may bring an action against a person who knowingly promotes, conducts, or participates as a performer in the drag performance that occurs before an audience that includes the minor.”
The bill specifically notes, however, that the drag show must violate “the prevailing standard in the adult community for content suitable for minors” and the “person fails to take reasonable steps to restrict access to the performance by minors.
The statute of limitation is 10 years after the performance. If a suit is successful, the claimant may collect a statutorily required $5,000 fine, reimbursement for attorney’s fees, and “actual damages, including damages for psychological, emotional, and physical harm.”
The suit will fail, however, if a minor uses a fake identification card to enter the establishment or “the defendant reasonably believed the minor was at least 18 years of age at the time.”
The bill states, “It is not a defense to an action brought under this chapter that the minor was accompanied at the drag performance by the minor’s parent or guardian.”
The Dallas Express reached out to Rep. Toth for comment but did not receive a response before publication.
Some opponents have denounced the proposal. Erin Reed, a transgender activist, shared the language of the bill, claiming, “Texas has released a bounty hunter drag ban.”
Referring to the Texas Heartbeat Act, which established a similar cause of action for abortion, Reed suggested, “Anti-abortion techniques now target drag and trans people.”
“These bounties can easily be turned against trans performers. … It could ban a trans person singing karaoke. It could ban pride,” Reed concluded.
Drag performances in front of children have become a hot-button issue in Texas recently, leading Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to identify “banning children’s exposure to drag shows” as a legislative priority in the Senate, per The Dallas Express.
Kelly Neidert, an anti-drag show activist, supported Toth’s bill, telling The Dallas Express, “‘Kid-friendly’ drag shows have been occurring more frequently around the state, and children are being exposed to extremely sexual content when they attend.”
“Rep. Toth’s bill provides a way of holding people accountable if they continue to host these disturbing shows in the presence of minors,” she continued. “This is a great bill that will help protect Texas kids from harmful, explicit content.”
The Dallas Express also reached out to the national pro-LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Federation for its analysis of the bill but received no response prior to publication.