An Oklahoma lawmaker is asking for a legal opinion about whether drag shows are banned by an obscenity law recently adopted by the legislature.
Senate Majority Floor Leader Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, sent a request for a formal opinion to Attorney General Gentner Drummond this week. In it, she asks about House Bill 1217, which took effect in May.
The bill prohibits people from performing sexually explicit or obscene acts in public places or areas where minors are present. It also bans political subdivisions from authorizing performances on public property and imposes fines for violations.
Confusion about the bill and questions about its legal significance are not new.
While the language of the bill does not explicitly mention drag shows, lawmakers and state officials have repeatedly connected the two issues.
"This basically, I mean, this is a no-brainer. We're basically banning drag shows in front of kids," Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a video on X, after signing the bill into law last month.
He told Oklahomans to pay special attention to the legislators who didn't support it.
Other lawmakers have asserted the bill is not directly targeting drag, but Daniels said that's what the bill authors intended.
"Their intentions were to ban drag performances in public places in front of minor children. That was their goal," Daniels said. "The bill doesn't mention drag queen performances anywhere, so I knew it was going to be confusing, so that's why I put in the request."
Devraat Awasthi, a legal fellow at the ACLU of Oklahoma, said banning drag shows would require a much higher legal precedent, as freedom of speech is constitutionally protected.
"What it bans instead is obscene performances," he said. "And, most, if not all, drag performances are not going to count as obscene performances."
Oklahoma law defines obscene material as depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct that are patently offensive, have as its dominant theme "a prurient interest in sex," and lack literary, artistic, educational, political or scientific purposes or value. Proving a drag show meets all three requirements would be difficult, Awasthi said.
He said he thinks the bill's vagueness is deliberate.
"If people who are out on the street doing drag or engaging in any kind of gender nonconformity, if they believe that HB 1217 applies to them, then it doesn't really matter if it does or doesn't. As long as they believe it does, they're going to self-censor and not engage in the protected expression that they want to engage in," he said.
Activists share Awasthi's concerns about the chilling effect of the new law, said Whitney Cipolla, Board President of Oklahomans for Equality.
"There is concern and fear amongst entertainers in our community, and even trans people who are not drag performers, who are afraid if they are just who they are, wearing what they want, could they be perceived as a drag artist or performer and then get punished because of it? So real concern is here," Cipolla said.
Daniels said her opinion about whether the law should be enforced as a drag ban is "insignificant." Instead, she said she is seeking clarity for her constituents on both ends of the debate.
"The Legislature has made it abundantly clear that sexually explicit performances have no place in public spaces, especially in front of children," Daniels said in a press release. "Unfortunately, drag shows continue to spark controversy in Bartlesville and across the state, underscoring the need for further legal guidance. I look forward to the Attorney General's opinion to help clarify how this law should be enforced."
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