Proposed Ohio bill banning drag shows may have wide-ranging impact on theater performances

[RandySF]

A proposed bill meant to limit drag performances has wide-ranging impacts on the entire theater community, possibly banning famous and celebrated musicals from being put on, according to performers in Northeast Ohio.

The theater season is wrapping up at the Beck Center for the Performing Arts.

“Drag just means dressing in the opposite gender; it doesn’t mean anything sexual, doesn’t mean anything salacious,” Artistic Director Scott Spence said.

But a new bill introduced to the Ohio House makes Spence fear he may need to shut down future productions.

“If you’re trying to expose our children to obscenity in the state of Ohio, expect to be placed in prison,” state Rep. Josh Williams (R-Oregon) said.

Williams introduced House Bill 245, which prohibits “adult cabaret performances in locations other than adult cabarets,” which includes nightclubs, sex shops or dirty movie theaters.

Ohio has a statute regarding performances that are “harmful to juveniles or obscene” — this used to just apply to strippers and topless dancers. Now, the lawmakers added a provision for people “who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup.”




https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/07/20/proposed-ohio-bill-banning-drag-shows-may-have-wide-ranging-impact-on-theater-performances/

[TreasonousBastard]

1. What is wrong with these people who think guys in drag are worse...

than Hitler?

[mopinko]

2. cuz it strikes deep in their twisted lil hearts.

it’s shakes up their gender identity, and it scares the shit out of them.
cuz they’re babies.

[NowISeetheLight]

3. Paper Tiger

Since they have no plan to help average Americans they need to create someone to hate. Used to be black people, then gays, then Migrants, now drag queens. Typical RepubQcan modis operandi.

[allegorical oracle]

4. Maybe it's my age, but I find it alarming how definitions are changing. In my experience, there

was always a socially accepted distinction between so-called "drag" entertainers who routinely dressed as the opposite gender, and "cross-dressing," where a performer temporarily portrays him/herself as the opposite gender for a purpose (i.e.,Victor, Victoria, Some Like it Hot, Tootsie).

Never met anyone who had a problem with either portrayal until the evangelicals recently reared up on their hind legs. Seems to me to be an artificial outrage manufactured to provide a facade of political piety.

It was such a throat-jamming of religious social edicts that led to the Puritans being asked to please find a ship and sail to the New World. They had worn out their welcome in the Old World.

[Marthe48]

5. So Ohio state leadership has gone to the dark side

Where did the fascists come from and why are there so many, and how did they get elected and how can we disrupt their antlike march over democracy?

[MichMan]

6. I believe the reaction was likely driven by the children's story time events

that were being planned in some areas with drag queens.

People didn't understand (whether rationally or not) why their children needed to be brought into it and questioned the motives of those planning the events.

[Chipper Chat]

7. .no more performing South Pacific in Ohio.

I can just see a civic theater performing South Pacific. And suddenly the cops rush in and haul off Nellie Forbush and Luther Billis.

[NutmegYankee]

8. These laws will make reenacting a crime also.

10-30% of civil war reenactors are women dressing as men.