A Missouri Senate committee is considering legislation that aims to ban adult cabaret or drag performances where it can be viewed by a minor. The bill proposed from Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, stipulates that anyone caught violating the proposed law would be charged with a class A misdemeanor for a first offense, and repeat offenses would be a class E felony.
“You know it’s definitely geared towards protecting children from these displays of sexual content,” explained Brattin. “It is geared towards the prurient interests, which, by definition, is sexual in nature and those sorts of things.”
Sage Corum, with the ACLU of Missouri, opposed the bill over its broad definition and its impact on First Amendment freedom of expression.
“This bill threatens our right to both creative expression and gender expression,” Corum said. “Drag is a form of creative expression like any other. The bill’s broad prohibition of adult cabaret performance on public property in a location that ‘could be reasonably expected to be viewed by a person who is not an adult’ covers conduct almost anywhere in the state.”
The bill was introduced in the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, which could vote to advance the bill sometime soon. Committee Chair Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, proposed clarifying the bill’s language.
“I think that we need to carefully define what we believe is drag that has the prurient interests and what doesn’t,” he said. “What is theatre? What is something that you can see on Frozen? I think that some of these, yes you will have kissing scenes or something like that. I think, quite clearly, in our definitions, that wouldn’t rise to of prurient interests and overexposure to sexual material.”
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