UPDATED to add a quote from Ash Hall, Policy & Advocacy Strategist for the ACLU of Texas: “Today the Texas House passed S.B.
12, originally designed to explicitly target drag performances and now worded vaguely enough to give officials the power to target any performance they don’t like.
S.B. 12 censors Texans’ free expression by threatening to ban and criminalize performance that “appeals to the prurient interest in sex” without defining that key term.
It disproportionately affects the LGBTQ+ community and especially its BIPOC members, who have historically been targeted by state officials and law enforcement.