Legislating hate
Jenna Skyy, left, and Cassie Nova pose with Drag Queen Story Hour fan Grayson Texas lawmakers have found 93 ways to discriminate against the LGBTQ community, with trans folks and the drag community the main targets DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writertaffet@dallasvoice.com The score in the 2023 Texas Legislature so far is 104 “good” bills to 93 “bad” bills according to Equality Texas.
Good bills are those that protect the rights of LGBTQ Texans, and bad bills are those that take away those rights. One new category of “bad” bills that has begun to pass in state legislatures around the country (Kentucky Senate committee advances anti-drag bill and ‘It literally makes no sense’) and has been introduced in Austin involves drag performances.
Senate Bill 1601, introduced by state Sen. Bryan Hughes who represents Tyler and Longview, revokes state funding to any municipal library that hosts an all-ages drag story time, like the one in which Cassie Nova and Jenna Skyy read to a packed crowd of all ages that was organized by the Grauwyler Branch of the Dallas Public Library but hosted in the Grauwyler Recreation Center.
SB 476 defines any business that hosts performers exhibiting a gender identity different from that assigned at birth — including makeup or clothing — as a sexually oriented business.
