By Seth Boyes,
The annual Decorah Pride festival parade and other events often feature individuals dressed in drag. Organizers with Decorah Pride may need to address questions of legal compliance and safety for participants if a bill that’s been introduced in the Iowa House becomes law. House Study Bill 158 would make it a felony for adults to bring minors to a drag show or allow a minor to attend such a show. Decorah Pride organizers indicated the annual parade along Water Street in Decorah might fall under the bill’s definition of a drag show. (File photo)
A state bill being studied by lawmakers in the Iowa House could impact certain aspects of the annual Decorah Pride festival and other events the bill defines as drag shows.
House Study Bill 158 would make it a felony in Iowa for an adult to knowingly bring anyone under the age of 18 to a drag show or for a business to allow a minor to be present at such a show. The bill defines a drag show as entertainment in which a performer “sings, lip-syncs, dances, reads or otherwise performs,” regardless of whether they receive payment, and in which the main aspect of the event is “a performer who exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth, through the use of clothing, makeup, accessories or other gender signifiers.”
Individuals who violate the proposed law could be charged with a Class D felony — which the bill notes would be punishable by up to five years in prison — and businesses which allow minors to attend such events could be fined $10,000 per minor present. The bill would also allow parents or legal guardians of minors to seek legal damages between $10,000 and $50,000 for each violation of the proposed law.
Lobbyists with the Iowa chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, the Des Moines Performing Arts, the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa Action Fund have registered in opposition to the bill. Groups like The Family Leader, Iowa Baptists for Biblical Values and Public Education Libraries and Legal Advocacy Political Action Committee — or PELLA PAC — have registered their support for it.
“This bill is not harming those that have already drank from the poison cup, but protecting those that have not from ingesting the harmful lie of LGBTQ served up in the drag show myth,” Rick Phillips with PELLA PAC wrote in a Feb. 12 comment to lawmakers. “Protecting children not yet harmed by drag shows takes nothing from LGBTQ.”
Mariann Fant, a committee member with the non-profit organization Decorah Pride, said state law already protects minors from specifically defined obscene material, which she indicated includes drag performances designed for adult audiences. She went on to call the House’s proposed bill absurd and poorly written legislation.
A number of comments submitted to the House subcommittee earlier this month expressed opposition to the bill, arguing it included overly broad language which might apply to classical stage performances, like “Peter Pan” or William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” as well as popular films, such as “Tootsie” and “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
Full article available in the February 27 Decorah Leader.
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