2023 brought a reemergence of anti-drag and anti-trans laws including the Senate Bill 12. After being reinstated as of March 25, 2026, Senate Bill 12 restricts public drag shows and its performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics in public property or in front of children.
The bill reads:
Relating to the authority to regulate sexually oriented performances and to restricting those performances on the premises of a commercial enterprise, on public property, or in the presence of an individual younger than 18 years of age; authorizing a civil penalty; creating a criminal offense.
The vagueness of the law allows police and judges to determine the extent of the bill. In practice, that means that transgender people, as well as cisgender people whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth, can find themselves put in a position where they are subject to scrutiny.
This bill fuels transphobia when individuals take it upon themselves to act under the guise of protection. Cis women with masculine presenting features are targeted outside public restrooms.
According to the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security, “…the United States is squarely within the early to middle stages of a genocidal process against trans people, the goal of which is to completely erase transgender people not only from public life but also from existence in the U.S. and globally.”
This bill aims to limit the existence of drag in public spaces, but it cannot erase the longstanding presence of drag embedded in the culture such as ballroom lingo like “serve” and voguing becoming part of the mainstream.
