Missouri Republicans seek to criminalize certain drag shows witnessed by children

By Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri Independent

For the third year in a row, Missouri Republicans are trying to place restrictions on drag performances.

(Photo- State Sen. Rick Brattin speaks as part of a Missouri Freedom Caucus press conference in 2024. Brattin, who sponsored a bill this year restricting drag performances, leads the Missouri Freedom Caucus (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent)

The effort has stalled in years past, clearing a House committee last year but never coming up for debate in the Senate.

That changed Wednesday, when a Senate committee held a public hearing on legislation sponsored by state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, that he argued was “geared towards protecting children from displays of sexual content.”

The bill would make it a class-A misdemeanor to participate in an “adult cabaret performance” in a public area or other space where children might see. A repeat violation becomes a class-E felony.

State Sen. Nick Schroer, a Republican from Defiance who chairs the Senate’s judiciary committee, discussed possible fixes to the bill’s definitions following opponent’s testifying that community theater could be impacted.

The issue is a definition of “adult cabaret performance” that includes “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest or similar entertainers.”

Including “or similar entertainers,” opponents said, is too vague and may draw police to plays where women play male roles or a non-sexual performance by a transgender person.

Chris Lehman, co-founder of LGBTQ-focused entertainment company Nclusion+, said there are already “safeguards in place for all-ages drag.”

Lehman checks IDs before shows with racy performances, and kid-friendly routines are scrutinized to eliminate swearing and other mature content. Even music by Taylor Swift is censored and edited for a young audience, he said.

Schroer said the bill was tailored to not ban age-designated spaces and asked Lehman if parents should be allowed to take children to a “topless strip club.”

“Of course not,” Lehman said. “However, the rest of the bill language goes on and bundles everything together.”

Lawmakers criticized an Nclusion+ performance in 2023 where drag queens lip-synched to songs like “Hold on (for one more day)” by Wilson Phillips during a City of Columbia diversity event attended by middle-school students.

Attorney General Andrew Bailey sent the city’s mayor and the Columbia Public Schools superintendent letters accusing them of trying “actively to undermine Missouri’s laws by deliberately subjecting a group of middle-school students to an adult-themed drag show performance.”

Those letters have since been removed from the attorney general’s website.

Schroer mentioned that letter when questioning Cara Carter, a theater teacher in Columbia.

“It was alleged that kids were sent to a drag show on a field trip without parental consent,” he said.

Carter said the event had drag performers but was not wholly a drag show.

“I was in theater,” Schroer said. “And I think that we need to carefully define what we believe is drag that has the prurient interest and what doesn’t.”

Carter uses content warnings when shows have depictions of violence or other mature matters, she said, adding that these disclosures are “a much cleaner way of doing this than straight up banning it entirely.”

No one testified in favor of the bill, and the committee took no action on Wednesday.