Texas law restricting drag shows to be enforced starting this March
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A federal appeals court will allow the state of Texas to enforce a 2023 law restricting public drag performances, reaffirming its ruling on Wednesday.
Beginning March 18, Senate Bill 12 will prohibit “sexually oriented performances” from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children.
The bill defines a “sexually oriented performance” as a visual performance that involves nudity or sexual conduct and that “appeals to the prurient interest in sex.”
Business owners hosting these performances will be fined $10,000 and those in violation of the law could be hit with a Class A misdemeanor and up to one year in prison.
Despite the ruling, civil liberties organizations have pledged to continue challenging the decision.
In a press release from the ACLU of Texas, lawyers emphasized that “family-friendly and all-ages drag performances remain fully legal in Texas” and pledged to keep pressing the case in district court and on appeal.
The organization's senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas explained that the law could have negative effects on arts as a whole.
“The law’s vague and sweeping provisions still create a harmful chilling effect for drag artists and those who support them, while also threatening many types of performing arts cherished here in Texas, from theater to ballet to professional wrestling.”
In June 2023, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) originally passed S.B. 12, a law criminalizing “sexually explicit” performances in the presence of minors.
While the law didn’t specifically mention drag, Abbott himself declared that the law also branched to include public drag performances.
Later that September, U.S. District Judge David Hittner struck down the proposed bill by deeming it unconstitutional and claimed it “impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment and chills free speech.”
Then, in November 2025, a three-judge panel reversed the decision, banning the shows and denying plaintiffs (Woodlands Pride and Abilene Pride Alliance) a rehearing.
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