Ohio bill reignites debate over public drag performances

By Farah Siddiqi

By Ivory Herman / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State NewsLab-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

In a renewed push to regulate public drag performances, Ohio Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would restrict drag shows, as well as performances by strippers and exotic dancers, to adult entertainment venues where minors may not be present.

In 2023, Representatives Angela King, R-Celina, and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Township, introduced a similar bill that was aimed at banning drag shows in places other than adult entertainment venues, but it didn’t make it out of the House Criminal Justice committee.

In April, King and Williams introduced House Bill 249, called the Enact the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act, which is currently in the House Criminal Justice Committee.

Williams said the legislation is needed to update the state's indecent exposure statute.

“In the state of Ohio, in the indecent exposure statute, there’s no definition for private part, but there is a definition for private area under the criminal statutes,” Williams said. “so that was simply a one word change to update the indecent exposure statute."

Just because someone’s genitalia isn’t showing explicitly, Williams said, if the area close to it is showing, that could be sexually suggestive towards children.&nbsp

“There is a mountain of evidence that shows exposure to obscene conduct is harmful to the development of minors,” said Williams. “There’s tons of studies on this issue and how it affects the view of the children.”

Williams, who introduced the bill in late May, said he hopes to see it be a priority in the fall when legislators return from the summer recess.

The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the bill for its reliance “on notoriously vague legal standards used to determine whether content is considered obscene and/or ‘harmful to juveniles.’

Gary Daniels, legislative director of ACLU Ohio, said, “The bill on one hand represents is legislators attempting to use their influence regarding what other people do as forms of entertainment. They don’t like it so much they hope to crack down [on], if not entirely ban, drag shows across the state of Ohio. They do it by trying to frame drag shows essentially by definition as either harmful to juveniles or obscene.”

In response to the 2023 anti-drag bill, Equality Ohio, ACLU of Ohio, and TransOhio issued a joint statement condemning the bill for criminalizing LGBTQ+ expression and equating drag with obscenity.

Drag performer Monica Mod of Kent has performed for children at a church preschool, libraries and sometimes birthday parties, as well as in other venues. Monica Mod’s act has a ‘60s nostalgia meets Golden Age of Broadway style. For her, drag isn’t sexual, Mod said. It’s a way to be creative and spread queer joy.

“They [state representatives] are going to have to take drag away from our cold dead hands,” Mod said. “There is not a world where I see that happening so because if we get discouraged and if we quit and we’re like cutting our losses, then that means that they win.”

This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.