this post was submitted on 07 Nov 2025
76 points (98.7% liked)

News

33058 readers
3551 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
JonsJava@lemmy.world
gedaliyah@lemmy.world
little_cow@lemmy.world
jeffw@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
rjc@lemmy.world
Tenthrow@lemmy.world
76
Texas can enforce drag show ban; court suggests they don’t believe all drag shows would violate law (apnews.com)
submitted 22 hours ago by Stamau123@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
14 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Texas can enforce a 2023 law that restricts some public drag shows, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

Senate Bill 12 prohibits drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children. The law would fine business owners $10,000 for hosting such performances, while those who violate the law could be hit with a Class A misdemeanor.

In September 2023, U.S. District Judge David Hittner declared the law unconstitutional, saying that it “impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment” and that it is “not unreasonable” to think it could affect activities like live theatre or dancing. More than two years later, a three-judge panel in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unblocked the law and returned the case to the district court.

As part of the ruling, the panel found that most of the plaintiffs — a drag performer, a drag production company and pride groups — failed to show that they intended to conduct a “sexually oriented performance,” and therefore, could not be harmed by the law. The ruling suggests that the federal judges don’t believe all drag shows are sexually explicit.

Critics of the ban have previously raised concerns that Republican lawmakers were portraying all drag performances as inherently sexual or obscene.

And while the law doesn’t have language explicitly referencing drag performances, SB 12’s original version specifically included them. Republican leaders have also made it clear that drag shows are the target.

“Texas Governor Signs Law Banning Drag Performances in Public. That’s right,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in a post on X in June 2023.

all 15 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 37 points 21 hours ago

I have a hard time believing that there are drag shows that violate the law.

Meanwhile, there are absolutely gun shows in Texas that violate the law.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 16 points 21 hours ago

In the laaaaand of the Naziiiiii,♫ ♪

And the hoooome of the depraaaaaved.♫ ♪

[–] tetrachromacy@lemmy.world 16 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

"Dancing suggestively", in that context, can mean literally any sort of dance. It's so broad as to be an effective ban on all drag shows, because any movement can suggest anything. They could see a drag performer simply stand up from a seated position on a chair with no music playing, call that "suggestive dancing", then jail or fine them. Nothing changes.

[–] knightly@pawb.social 1 points 2 hours ago

This is why I'm never going back to Texas.

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 9 points 18 hours ago

Time to find out what the limit is, then. Because they will start banning the shows regardless of content or intent and that excuse won't hold water any more.

[–] crandlecan@mander.xyz 8 points 18 hours ago

Get a life you fracking evangelical conservatives 🤮

[–] Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

Since when do these flag pissers care about nuance when it comes to something they don't like. They will arrest everyone and it will be up to their victims to prove they did nothing wrong. The whole time the corrupt system and their lackeys will be engaged in a smear campaign.