Appeals court allows Texas drag ban to go into effect next month - LGBTQ Nation

"In June 2023, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) passed S.B. 12, a law criminalizing "sexually explicit" performances in the presence of minors. Though the law didn't specifically mention drag, Abbott himself later declared that the law banned public drag performances. The law defined such performances as those in which "a male performer [is] exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.""

"The law also considers a performance as "sexually explicit" if it "appeal[s] to the prurient interest in sex" and the performer commits any "actual contact or simulated contact" between one person and another person's "buttocks, breast, or any part of the genitals." Under the law, both performers and venues that hosted such performances face a $10,000 fine and up to one year in prison."

"Last November 2025, the court reversed a lower court ruling and said the plaintiffs lacked the necessary legal standing to challenge the law, seeing as their drag performances were insufficiently sexual to risk persecution under the law's wording. The more recent Wednesday ruling reached the same conclusions and denied the plaintiffs' request for a rehearing of the case."

Texas' S.B. 12, passed in June 2023, criminalizes sexually explicit performances in the presence of minors. The law defines such performances as those where performers exhibit as a different gender using clothing, makeup, or physical markers while singing, lip syncing, dancing, or performing. A performance qualifies as sexually explicit if it appeals to prurient interest and involves actual or simulated contact with buttocks, breasts, or genitals. Violators face $10,000 fines and up to one year in prison. The 5th Circuit Court reversed a lower court ruling and denied plaintiffs' rehearing request, determining their drag performances were insufficiently sexual to risk prosecution under the law's specific wording.

Read at LGBTQ Nation