Texas drag queen fights drag ban bill with tribute to shooting victims

A Texas drag queen, Brigitte Bandit, spoke out in opposition to a proposed drag ban bill this is making its method during the state legislature. The bill, lodged through Republican state senator Bryan Hughes, goals to limit “certain sexually oriented performances” in public spaces and in entrance of kids. Should those performances happen in business places, the culprit may just face a nice of $10,000 (roughly £8,000). Public spaces, like libraries, might be stripped of state investment. The bill, which has already handed during the Texas State Senate, is lately ahead of the state House of Representatives, which may be Republican managed.

During a public listening to ahead of the House state affairs committee on 10 May, Austin-based drag queen Bandit, who had in the past hosted a daylight hours tournament web hosting youngsters however claims by no means to have had somebody specific fear till just lately, spoke out. She cited that there wasn’t any proof proving that she threatened the protection of kids. Bandit highlighted that neo-Nazis became up to protest in opposition to an all-ages tournament at the similar day {that a} gunman, reportedly related to neo-Nazi ideology, murdered 8 other people and injured seven extra in a shopping mall in Allen, Texas.

Bandit wore a get dressed bearing the Texas flag and the names of the Allen mass shooting victims, in addition to the ones from closing 12 months’s Uvalde basic faculty shooting additionally in Texas whilst attesting. She claimed that footage from an out of doors, daylight hours tale hour that she had hosted have been edited to seem as although they came about in “a dark nightclub”. She additionally claimed that those edited footage have been utilized in a televised commercial through an anti-LGBTQ+ team, Texas Family Project, in give a boost to of the proposed regulation. She added, “This bill is symbolic of the deceitful and dangerous blatant lies of these hate groups.”

Bandit concluded her testimony through announcing, “If all drag entertainment were inappropriate for children, why would these people have to edit images together to push this narrative? You stand with … these hate groups, and violence – real violence that is actually threatening our Texas children. I urge you to do better.”

It is value noting that Senator Hughes additionally presented Texas’s strict abortion ban regulation. In 2021, he proposed rules to restrict balloting rights after the 2020 presidential election, reputedly in give a boost to of fellow Republican, Donald Trump, who refused to concede defeat to Joe Biden.