BREAKING🚨🏳️🌈 A Reagan-appointed judge BLOCKED Texas's drag ban for the second time, telling homophobes: "just don't go.” U.S. District Judge David Hittner PERMANENTLY blocked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday from enforcing Senate Bill 12, the 2023 law that had been back in force since March. Under it, a venue could be fined $10,000 and a performer charged with a Class A misdemeanor, up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine, because someone under 18 was in the room. The law never uses the word drag. It bans performances that "appeal to the prurient interest in sex," a phrase Texas never defined anywhere in its own statutes. Hittner found the whole thing unconstitutionally vague, writing that "a single moment of eroticism could condemn an entire performance." By the plain text, he said, cheerleading, dancing and live theater could be civil or criminal violations, and performers like Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus could be barred from the stage in Texas. The 34-page ruling also cited Dolly Parton, whose death was announced the same day, pointing to the people who would call her a voluptuous sex symbol over her big hair, flamboyant clothes and breast exposure. Hittner had already ruled the law unconstitutional in September 2023. The 5th Circuit unblocked it and sent the case back to him, which let Paxton start enforcing it this spring. Paxton, now running for the U.S. Senate against Democrat James Talarico, called the new ruling "profoundly flawed" and "an affront to Texas values," and said he'll appeal. Brigitte Bandit, an Austin drag performer and plaintiff in the case who impersonates Parton, said she's relieved the court recognized drag as free expression. "As a lifelong Texan, I'm sick of this state trying to censor art and stoke hatred and violence against drag artists and the LGBTQIA+ community," she said. If you appreciate my posts, it would mean the world if you followed my page. Thank you for being here.
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