Drag shows are protected by 1st Amendment, performers tell federal judge

There's several Shakespeare plays involving cross-dressing. So basically they're going to outlaw Shakespeare.

They already banned Shakespeare in several schools for being too sexual.
- Sigh. Of course they did...
- Anyone remember the bit in the Bible where lot gets drunk and rapes his daughters?
- My freshman year of high school, my AP English teacher made sure to point out all the sexual stuff in Shakespeare, much to our chagrin.
Republicans see no issue with banning Shakespeare and any other expression of art
- Or knowledge. Keeping their constituents dumb and illiterate is the only way they can get votes.
- The only book you need is the Bible and the only art is the CROSS. If you have time for entertainment you have time to work and if you're a kid, go see your local pastor for "work"
  -- them, most likely
Republicans only care about Shakespeare, beethoven, and other such classical plays and music when they can use it as a dog whistle in order to imply an inherent criminality and inferiority present in Black Culture
And then they'll turn around and ban all of the ones that don't involve cross-dressing because in Shakespeare's time the female parts were all played by men.
They've unintentionally banned the Bible in their regressionist book burning jihad, so probably.

The longer the Americans focus their attention to the culture war, the less likely they pay attention to economic issues.

Or an ongoing, exponentially worsening global climate catastrophe.
Shame that it seems to be working...
- it seems to be a lot more effective on the right wingers
- Only one party has to pull this shit to drag everyone down. You can't just ignore dehumanization of LGBT people and continue to talk about the economy.
  It reminds me a bit of comic book superheroes. The nature of Good means the hero needs to watch out for everyone, and prioritize protecting people and saving lives. If forced to choose between saving a bystander and the crippling the villain, they pick the bystander. On the other hand, Evil doesn't give a shit. Villains aren't usually bothered by morality or collateral, especially if the ends justify the means.
  I know it's a cartoonish viewpoint on the topic, but I think it's applicable. We can't ignore persecution of minorities, even when it's very obviously an astroturfed cultural issue. Economic policy changes may help a greater number of people overall, but we can't achieve that at the cost of the bystander in danger.
We need to start hammering them. The media clearly is unwilling or unable to do it. Every time one of those right-wing family value fuckers starts talking about this stuff yell some catchphrase at them like
"How about rent?" "What about the rising debt?" "Why isn't insulin free?".
I am going to start with my local ones.
- Don’t forget the infrastructure failures either. You know.. the train derailments, the collapsing bridges, the tens of thousands of people killed on our roads everyday. Point out that the right is waging a culture war at the expense of public safety. This is really fucking dangerous. Good luck as I am not sure much can be done because words have become meaningless.
and all the other issues
Economy is gone, look at the cumulated inflation over the last few years. And depleting Treasury.
- The economy is great, if you're a rich billionaire, according to Bloomberg - https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-08-07/us-economy-is-strong-so-americans-should-stop-worrying-about-it
  But the everyday person is struggling and Republicans aren't going to do anything about that.

Don’t let Republicans pretend they care about children while allowing them to get slaughtered in the classroom and raped at bible camp and forcing them to give birth,

allowing them to get slaughtered in the classroom and raped at bible camp and forcing them to give birth,
while restricting the books they can read.
First things first.
Oops, too late!

I have no idea who down voted you, but here, have it back.

I drove through a tiny rural town, population 4300, in my province earlier this summer, which barely has enough people living there to support running a donut shop, let alone any sort of drag venue, and some idiot had signs at the end of his driveway saying "No more kids at drag shows!". I mean, it's literally the asshole of northern Ontario, a drag queen has never had a reason to go anywhere near there, he's obviously never left the town in his life, let alone seen a drag queen in person, and yet he paid to put up signs on his driveway people will mostly ignore about a subject that has nothing to do with him. Conservativism really is like a brain fever or something. The things they believe are so exquisitely stupid.

Anyway, I love drag and want to marry Naomi Smalls, and I'm hopeful this psychotic legislation in the US all gets struck down.

He's probably hoping for a protest against him with drag queens in attendance.
- Probably so but the thing is most people wouldn't even notice his signs, I just happened to look up as a passenger at the right second, and he lives on a rural highway with few neighbours. He wants attention but isn't going to get it.

This feels so stupid. There are people out there that really want to ban such shows? It's an art like any other. What's next, ban street mimes? Make improv ilegal?

It's part of the Republicans' strategy to stir up trans panic and use it as a wedge issue. Drag is only tangentially connected to trans people but their voters don't know that.
Men portrayed women for thousands of years until western societies began allowing female actors join their troupes.
- Now that women can play women, we don't need that anymore.
I mean they're already implementing what is next: Making it illegal to look/be trans in public
What’s next, ban street mimes?
I might be in favor of that one...
Who is banning such shows? Nay, why, let's all also make lap dances and pole dancing available to kids in school. Sure they are art forms and first amendment applies there too. /s
- Lap dances and pole dancing are not the same as a drag show, but while we are on the topic. You cool with me whipping Jesus in public, then nailing him to a fake cross with fake blood running down his face?

They used to do drag shows in WW2 during downtime from killing Nazis
You're not trying to get republicans on board like that, are you?

I know of a judge who would be happy to disagree… once he’s back from his 5th vacation trip this month.

You mean happy to agree, happy to disagree. Depends on who is paying for the vacation this month.
- Well since his friend the nazi billionaire is the one always picking up the tap..

You would essential have to outlaw all acting.

Hmm... better outlaw dancing while we're at it.
- Hey, wait! I remember that one!
- And MTV … no more music videos. Oops, already done

I find the whole concept of drag queen story hour confusing. Drag is this kind of specific performance art that seems like it is custom tailored for stage performance, so doing drag queen story hour seems as random as doing "the cast of the broadway musical cats!" story hour or something like that. What's the idea behind putting drag queens + story hour together at all?

It teaches children about acceptance and that they can be anything they want. Some children find it a calming environment to learn social skills because of dress up
Well, it started with libraries not having people volunteering to read to kids. And then adults who did read to kids wanted to make it fun and engaging for them, so they began dressing up in fantasy outfits and effectively cosplay. And then the gay community heard of it and likely just naturally fell into it. Some gay people grt very very excited about dressing up, doing theatrics, and drag.
- Really?? Huh, well there you go. I'll switch my status from 'indifference' to 'supporting.' No one ever took me to the library to have books read to me.
- That's pretty interesting! Do you know of any good articles that trace the history going that far back? Seems like it would be a good read.
I find the comparison to clowns quite helpful, as they fill a weirdly similar niche -- in most cases a performance art with clearly defined tropes, based on exaggerated makeup, carefully choreographed routines, while retaining an ability to improvise with a crowd, and of course some people have an irrational fear of them. From that perspective, it makes perfect sense to have them do the reading for kids. The makeup turns them into a cartoon character that kids find exciting; the practice with improv means children, who aren't always the best listeners, can be managed without harshing the vibe; and their general stage experience and presence helps them retain that tough crowd to get them to listen to the story.
The same as an astronaut reading a book about space or a mechanic one about cars rather then a nurse reading a book about ancient archeology. They know what they're talking about when someone asks a question when they read a book about gender or body dismorphia etc.
I can definitely see it. When I read to my kids when they were little, I’d at least do the voices and sound effects. However I would never do that in front of people I don’t know, let alone an audience. But I can see putting on a persona would help me drop that inhibition. Maybe that persona is represented by a funny hat or vest or glasses or something, or I can see drag being similar
Yeah that's where I fall as well. I'm not inherently opposed to it, it just seems like a wierd thing to exist.
Apparently 10 people think we're ~~transphobic~~ wrong word, uh.. dragphobic? for having this opinion too.
- I think both drag performers and Broadway actors have the perfect skill set for reading books to kids. It's like the difference between reading the lyrics to a song and hearing a musician sing it, regardless of whether they're a country singer or an opera singer or a movie music composer. An actor, whether Broadway or not, would know exactly when to pause to create dramatic tension, be able to give characters their own unique voices or personalities, etc. And the fantastical, exaggerated costumes of drag I imagine just make it all the more exciting for the kids.
  As for how drag performers reading books to kids started, I have no idea, but somebody else said it started from people volunteering to read books to kids at local libraries, and the LGBT community got into helping out in that way, which led to drag performers doing it. And that makes sense to me. The LGBT community seems to be heavily made up of people who want to support their communities. Probably because they've often had to band together and create their own.

Maybe they can pay for Rudy Giuliani to go down there and testify about that time he dressed up in drag and got motorboated by Donald Trump. Rudy's low on cash right now, I bet he would do it.

Do you have a link? xD
- You asked for it...
  https://youtu.be/qhtD0OtNfLQ
  .... Rudy was still the mayor of NYC at the time

Ordinarily I'd say no shit. But with Clarence getting a free ride...

A classic 1st amendment case for inspiration. https://youtu.be/oNsdMFCXH9M (video)

I care much less about the trans position on this as much as I see SB12 affecting things like strip clubs or onlyfans

Yes, hopefully it would also affect those. If some people think that law could be narrowly used to oppress/repress drag performers, maybe they’ll change their mind after they see it applied consistently and it affects them.
Or I don’t know, maybe overall sexual repression is intended

Username checks out. Fuck off, fossil.
Yes, why waste so much time trying to prosecute obviously protected expression?