Members of the drag show community listen in during a meeting at the Texas Capitol on March 23, 2023, in Austin, Texas.
Image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The proposed legislation defines “drag” performance as any performance in which a performer exhibits a gender that is different from the recorded gender at birth, by performing in front of an audience in a lascivious manner, through dances, lip-syncing, physical gestures, or by using markers such as makeup and clothing.
It is evident that the bounty hunter bill, which includes restaurants, has no restrictions when it comes to the term “lascivious”. Currently, Texas Republicans are making efforts to pass a law that categorizes any establishment hosting a drag performance as “a sexually oriented business”. However, the use of the word “lascivious” implies that the bill primarily targets performances in venues that already prohibit minors, such as nightclubs.
If the law is passed, it threatens to shut down certain family-friendly events and drag down the story hours at the library, as well as events that celebrate pride and include gender-nonconforming performers.
Introduced in 2021, the Senate Bill 8 is a novel legislative approach that effectively bans abortion in the state of Texas. This bill can be seen as a rehash of a strategy used by lawmakers in the state to go against abortion, while still ensuring constitutional protections and avoiding any roughshod running.
Texas Republicans are attempting to use the same legal mechanism of gender variance on assault to seek all-out challenges in order to evade court lawsuits. Since the passing of copycat laws, legislation has given the ability to reward successful cases with a promise of $10,000 for anyone suspected of helping a person obtain an abortion, enabling private citizens to sue as deputized law enforcement.
Even after 10 years, successful plaintiffs could receive damages of up to $5,000. The presence of a minor adds allure to the monetary reward, thus encouraging citizens to sue anyone who performs poorly or hosts an event. Similarly, the bill also encourages citizens to drag anyone who performs poorly or hosts an event, adding a monetary bounty to the equation.
The bill in Texas grants an odious authority, pulling from a long-standing legacy of the government’s use of state-sanctioned vigilantism to enforce white supremacy and conformity to gender norms. This practice has already become a threatening habit for armed fascists, militias, and far-right extremists in New York City, and even across the country.
Recently, Tennessee passed an anti-drag law that is technically ineffective and does not carry significant consequences in public life. These laws, although illegal, do little to deter attacks and embolden LGBTQ+ individuals, resulting in a chilling effect on their expression.
Compulsory heterosexuality and gender conformity is so manufactured, so fragile, that it requires heavy policing and enforcement.
The underlying panic of anti-queer and anti-trans sentiments is fueled by the fragility of the forces that require heavy enforcement and policing. This panic is based on the fact that gender conformity and compulsory heterosexuality are imposed, making it necessary to manufacture them. The new anti-LGBTQ+ law, like every other bounty hunter bill, is built on the paranoia formulated by the far-right around the existence of trans sites and drag performances, which are falsely associated with sexual predation and “grooming”.
The legislation proposed by the GOP in Texas seeks to codify the recent introduction of vigilante squads, which would create an official security force comprised of both private citizens and police. These squads have been actively enforcing brutal border enforcement for over 40 years, largely targeting and capturing hundreds of undocumented people attempting to cross the border. In recent years, under Donald Trump’s presidency, vigilantes with racist motivations have become notably present. The reliance on vigilantism has shaped the aspect of oppression in the history of this country in almost every way possible.
The long-standing relationship between elected officials, Republican police forces, and far-right armed groups has made it abundantly clear that white supremacy is upheld through the granting of expansive impunity or outright deputization. The law enforcement and government in the United States have embraced vigilantism, relying on the Jim Crow rule and resorting to vigilante violence, leading to the lynching of thousands through the Slave Fugitive Act of 1850. The history of such violence is deeply rooted, including the extraordinary lethal violence perpetrated against Mexican and Indigenous people to maintain and establish settler lines at the border, which was carried out by the infamous Texas Rangers known for their brutal and deadly actions in the mid-19th century.
What if the laws that permit citizens to use deadly force when they deem it necessary to defend their property or themselves uphold the white paranoia that the mere presence of Black boys and men constitutes a threat? Are these laws then considered grounds for racist vigilantism, if they do not legally sanction it?
Despite widespread and long-standing protests, the fact remains that the defense strategy of blaming the victim’s gender expression or sexual orientation for their own violent actions can still be outright rejected by a jury, even in a court where the ability to deploy such a defense is unambiguously legal. It is important to consider the government’s endorsement of anti-trans and anti-queer violence when looking at the continued presence of the “panic+LGBTQ defense” in books nationwide today.
Building on this legacy, the Republicans have resorted to vigilante loopholes in new legislation to control bodily autonomy, perpetuating a right-wing narrative about reproductive freedoms and LGBTQ+ liberation in the U.S., Where those authorized to wield the violent authority of the Texas Ranger are granted permission.