The legislation, House Study Bill 158, moved out of an Iowa House subcommittee, where lawmakers said they expect changes to the bill. Under the current proposal, any adult person who knowingly brings a minor to a drag performance at a business can be charged with a class D felony. The owner or manager of an establishment who knowingly allows minors to attend drag shows could also be charged with a class D felony, and businesses could be fined $10,000 under the bill.
Many speakers advocating against the bill were against this premise — with many drag performers speaking about their experiences in age-appropriate drag shows. Other speakers said the bill’s definition of a “drag show” is far greater in scope than shows at LGBTQ pride events or those like “drag brunch” events.
The bill defines a drag show as a performance where “the main aspect of the performance 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.” It also opens the definition of a performance to include singing, dancing, as well as reading or other performances “before an audience for entertainment.”
Maxwell Mowitz, representing the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa, said the broad language of the bill could mean that transgender people could be targeted under the law for public speeches or non-drag performances.
“First, what constitutes a performance?” Mowitz said. “I’m a transgender person. I was assigned female at birth, but I dress and live as a masculine person. So this bill targets me. This bill also defines performance as reading: Today, I’m reading testimony in front of a group of people, from the perspective of a trans person. … It seems to me that the language of this bill could be bent to make it illegal for a minor to attend an event in which I am speaking, including this very subcommittee, simply because I live ‘in drag,’ as a different gender than the sex that I was assigned at birth, which is drag according to this legislation.”
Mowitz also said the bill could prevent films like “Mrs. Doubtfire” or “Mulan” from being shown at public film screenings because it involves a person dressing as a gender different than that assigned at birth. Jim Obradovich, representing the Independent Venue Association of Iowa, said the legislation could also cut off access for children to works of classical art like Beethoven’s “Fidelio” and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” because they contain characters who dress as another gender.
