By Marissa Payne, Des Moines Register
Des Moines, IA-LGBTQ advocates are decrying a House bill unveiled this week that would make it a felony to take a minor to a drag show in Iowa, the latest Republican-backed legislative effort cracking down on gender identity.
The performances have been targeted by other legislation pushed this year, but this is the first to explicitly mention drag shows as part of a string of anti-LGBTQ bills working their way through the GOP-controlled Legislature.
The proposal, House Study Bill 158, defines a drag show as a performance primarily where the performer “exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth” by their clothing, makeup, accessories or other features.
This applies whether the performer sings, lip-syncs, dances, reads or “performs for entertainment,” regardless of whether they receive payment.
Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, who introduced the bill, described drag performances as sexualized and “wholly inappropriate” for minors. He said his proposal is in line with other steps that lawmakers have taken to protect kids in recent years.
In recent years, drag shows and Drag Story Time events where drag performers read stories to children have increasingly come under fire from Republicans. GOP lawmakers around the U.S. have moved to more broadly restrict minors from viewing public drag events as conservative critics suggest they are used to “groom” or “sexualize” children.
Keenan Crow, director of policy and advocacy for the statewide LGBTQ organization One Iowa, said there is a “moral panic” surrounding drag performances, but there is nothing inappropriate about wearing makeup, regardless of a person’s gender.
“What we’re really doing here is playing gender police,” Crow said. “We’re saying there’s only one way to look like a certain gender, only one way to do that, and if you violate it, it is so inappropriate as to be a felony if you try to do that in front of children. I think that is absolutely ridiculous.”
Al Drago/Getty Images
Other legislation shielding minors from viewing drag shows was tied up in the courts in Tennessee last year but later allowed to take effect after a U.S. appeals court reversed a lower court’s ruling and upheld the state’s 2023 law, dubbed the “Adult Entertainment Act.”
The Tennessee law bars people from performing on public property where a minor could view the show if it was “harmful to minors.” That definition covers extreme sexual or violent content without literary, artistic, or political value for minors.
Iowa bill proposes hefty fines up to $50,000 for violators
Under the legislation, a person over age 18 who knowingly brings a minor to a drag show would be guilty of a class “D” felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine between $1,025 and $10,245.
The bill would levy fines of $10,000 per minor against any business that allows a minor to be present at or view a drag show hosted on its premises, and against any public entity or state agency receiving state dollars that hosts a drag show.
A parent or legal guardian of a minor who views a drag show could bring civil action between $10,000 and $50,000 for each violation.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said these issues are not what Iowans are asking lawmakers to focus on while they’re questioning how to afford their grocery bills and are struggling to pay their rent.
“They are not concerned about story time, they are concerned about paying their bills, and I’m really getting tired of these culture war bills that are being introduced to grab headlines when we have real work to do here and we haven’t done much real work to help Iowans,” Konfrst said.
House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, told reporters Thursday he wasn’t familiar with the bill and wanted to speak to the legislation’s sponsor and have more conversations before commenting on it.
Local businesses condemn ‘overreaching’ proposal
Some local businesses serving the LGBTQ population took to social media to condemn the bill and spread word about the proposal.
The bill has not yet had its first consideration by lawmakers on the House Education Committee, which Wheeler chairs. A subcommittee is currently slated for 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18 in Room 304 at the Iowa Capitol.
Bethany Fast, co-owner of The Little Book independent bookstore in Des Moines’ Highland Park neighborhood, called the bill “overreaching” in an Instagram post and said no one’s children are forced to attend Drag Queen Storytime.
Showing a picture taken at the store of people dressed in drag, Fast wrote, “I would trust any single one of those pictured here with the safety and wellbeing of my own children. I cannot say the same for the bigots sitting in seats of power in the Iowa legislature.”
The Blazing Saddle, the LGBTQ bar in Des Moines’ East Village neighborhood, asked people to “support your local Drag Queens & Venues” in a Facebook post.
“Suit up & show up because we aren’t going to give up!!” the post declared.
Similar bill intended to bar minors from ‘obscene’ performances advanced
Wheeler’s legislation explicitly aims at drag shows, which differs from another bill, Senate File 116, that similarly looks to shield minors from viewing the shows but does so by targeting “obscene performances.”
The Senate bill would make knowingly exposing anyone younger than 18 to an “obscene performance” an aggravated misdemeanor, as well as knowingly selling a ticket or admitting a minor to a venue where such a performance is held.
It would establish a private civil cause of action where parents or legal guardians of a minor, or a minor once they reach age 18 who was exposed to an “obscene performance,” can bring action against anyone who has knowingly shown obscene material or allowed an obscene performance in front of a minor. Minimum damages would be set at $10,000.
Critics fear that proposal, which advanced out of a Senate subcommittee last week, could discourage drag shows and invite lawsuits against venues offering LGBTQ pride programming.
Crow said Iowa’s majority Republican Legislature prioritizes free speech and free expression, “except for when it comes to things they don’t like.”
“I couldn’t disagree more” with the proposals to restrict drag performances, Crow said, “but I do appreciate that we are actually being honest about our intentions and saying that we want to ban drag as opposed to the Senate’s proposal, which is much more covert.”
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