GOP lawmaker wants to designate any theater with a trans actor a "sexually oriented business" [View all]
A newly introduced Texas bill, H.B. 643, would redefine any alcohol-serving venue that hosts drag or transgender performers as a “sexually oriented business.”
The bill — one of 17 anti-LGBTQ bills recently introduced by Republican state legislators — would allow the venues to face criminal penalties and possibly be shut down if they allow children to view any “performance in which a performer exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth,” the bill states.
The broadly written bill would potentially punish any theater, sports venue, or restaurant that features a trans performer or displays any film or photo of a person wearing clothes not associated with their sex assigned at birth, effectively outlawing many Shakespearean plays and comedies like Mrs. Doubtfire. The law requires – not just allows – anti-LGBTQ job discrimination in the performing arts.
Venue owners who allow minors to view such performances would be charged with a Class A misdemeanor and receive a fine of up to $4,000 and a jail sentence of up to one year.
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/gop-lawmaker-wants-designate-theater-trans-actor-sexually-oriented-business/