Dragging down both personal freedom and queer culture, an Ohio lawmaker wants to make child drag shows illegal.
Republican state Rep. Tim Schaffer has introduced a bill that would outlaw performances by “a child under eighteen years of age or a mentally or physically handicapped child under twenty-one years of age.”
If passed, violators of the statute would face up to six months in prison and a $1000 fine.
Schaffer introduced the bill after learning about the performance by a 9-year-old drag queen. Jacob Measley set off a firestorm of controversy after he performed a drag routine as “Miss Mae Hem” at a Toledo Pride event.
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Schaffer slammed Measely’s parents as “a very bad example of parenting,” and likened it to sex slavery.
“Given our heightened focus on human trafficking and the role money plays in trafficking children, I knew I had to take action to make sure this activity does not occur again,” Schaffer said of the bill. “We can do better to protect innocent children and we must do better.”
For all Schaffer’s bluster, however, Measley’s parents have defended their decision to let him perform.
“Jacob is just a guy who likes to dress up and dance and feel pretty,” said Jeri Measley, Jacob’s mother. “It’s kind of like Halloween every time he has the opportunity to do it.”
She further explained that her son is a huge fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and that she never allows him to perform songs with sexual lyrics or overtones.
Thus far, Schaffer’s bill has eight co-sponsors, all of whom have very anti-LGBTQ records. Critics worry that if passed, the law could be used too broadly to attack any parent or venue that allows a queer child to embrace his identity.
Related: Fabulous New Orleans drag queen descends upon local library for children’s story time
Kieru
This article omits some context that I feel significantly changes the narrative. Much as I have reservations of some of the legislations verbiage, overall I think it might be ‘good’. Here is the context that is missing:
– The legislation as currently proposed only targets establishments with a ‘D’ class liquor license. That’s bars, restaurants, hotels, etc. So a kid could still perform in a variety of other venues.
– It also only applies when a minor or mentally/physically handicapped person under 21 is performing an act that: that shows a minor simulating sexual activity, masturbation, or bestiality and that, taken as a whole by the average person applying contemporary community standards, appeals to prurient interest.
“simulating sexual activity” and “applying contemporary community standards, appeals to prurient interest” are a little too vague for my tastes.
But telling parents and establishments that their minor cannot do a drag performance while pretending to have sex on stage? I think that’s fine. I think that’s sensible. These are still kids, no matter what their passion is or how talented they are at performing.
RoughRugger
How many “venues” have drag performances but DON’T have liquor licenses? And what kids are doing drag acts that simulate sex?
This seems very much like a classic right-wing solution to a problem nobody asked about but that will quash activities that aren’t problematic in the first place.
Kieru
@RoughRugger – Yes I agree… this does seem to be a solution in search of a problem. My issue is specifically with how the article frames its headline and its context. The proposed legislation just isn’t as stark doom and gloom as the author would suggest.
The cynic in me though… wonders how often this DOES happen. How many would-be Toddlers & Tiaras mothers so hungry to get their child to become the next YouTube sensation would do just what this legislation aims to prevent: exploit their child by having them perform in a sexual manner.
From what I could find online of Miss Mae Hem it doesn’t seem like his mother is doing any of that. I would be interested in hearing what from the performance Rep. Tim Schaffer saw prompted his need for such legislation. Or if he even did see the performance… or merely heard of it from an outraged and perhaps bigoted member of the community.
PinkoOfTheGange
And the vagueness is the trap.
DCguy
Will they also be shutting down all of those child beauty pageants that take place in hotel ballrooms? Hotels not only have liquor licenses, but those pageants are far more grossly exploitative than any drag show ever will be.
Juanjo
First, it is a solution for a problem that does not exist. The videos of this young man’s performance are sexually suggestive to a normal human being. However, this so-called human being proposing the law thinks it is sexually suggestive and perverted.
Second and related, if you owned an establishment would you want to take the risk of being wound up in criminal or civil litigation because some far-right fake Christian douchebag decided to allege you were permitting such? The fact is you simply would have no such talent ever, under any circumstances. It is easy to prefer charges of this nature, it is expensive to the consequences of someone doing that to your business. Hordes of fundamentalist nutcases picketing and perhaps one or two entering fully armed to investigate and burn the place down. It happened to a pizza parlor why not your place?
The fact is that this is simply an attack on gay people by a right-wing bigot.
TomG
I presume we should also outlaw child beauty pageants. Oh no….because repukelicans like ogling little girls.
Doug
Even in this day and age, I don’t believe this will get anywhere.
gjg64
I was thinking the same thing……
DCguy
I saw this right after I posted a similar comment. Totally agree with you.
[email protected]
So what about the kid in school plays, where it calls for a boy to be in drag…he seems to want to make that illegal too.. If he does then he first has to make all the OTHER rules in Leviticus as laws and illegal to do FIRST! Then we can listen to him.
Doug
Even in this day and age, I don’t believe this will get anywhere.
Mattster
This ignoramus needs a history lesson. All theater in Elizabethan times was performed by males, females were prohibited from appearing on stage. Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, all of Shakespeare was performed by guys. This kind of vaguely defined law would have stifled classical theater!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Yet for decades these smcubags didn’t seem to have a prob with little girls ages 3 and up posing and strutting in bathing suits on runways in child “beauty pageants”
These vile lunatics mercissly attack these CHILDREN. The extremely talented very well adjusted kid drag performer Desmond is Amazing has had his home address posted online. These abhorrent pigs have taken to stalking and confronting him and his family as he goes to school….
truthseeker
@”PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS”
I would assume this lawmaker and many others are considering these things because of the things “Desmond is Amazing” has done and things his parents have allowed him to do.
Back on December 1, 2018, Desmond “performed” at 1am in a bar in Brooklyn where he wore a crop top, short shorts, and a blonde wig. He writhed around on stage while the patrons slipped him dollar bills (almost like a stripper).
When it first occurred, a guy even went to the bar’s Yelp page to write, “I left after seeing a child dance on stage for money at nighttime. This was on Saturday night and I have been feeling disturbed ever since”
I don’t think any child’s parents should let them dance on a stage in skimpy outfits while grown men throw money at them at 1am because those people are the ones actually harming children.
Juanjo
link or it didn’t happen, “truthseeker”.
truthseeker
@Juanjo
Queerty doesn’t allow us to post links. In the amount of time it took you to type that response, you could’ve Googled it and found hundreds of online blogs which covered the controversy.
Even Desmond’s mom responded to the controversy of her 11 year old dancing on stage for money by saying, “He often collects tips…which we allow him to keep and he uses to buy clothing and the toy trains he wants. ”
In regards to her 11 year old dancing at a club for money after midnight, Desmond’s mom added, “The performance was promoted and anyone who did not wish to see a drag kid perform in a club did not have to attend. No one forced you to go.”
She then said that anyone who has a problem with her 11 year old shaking his body on stage for dollar bills after midnight is just a “homophobe”.
All of that comes directly from Desmond’s official Instagram. Not sure what other source you need to verify this. Clearly, this particular case is bad that even you cannot fathom it to be true, hence your comment about “link or it didn’t happen”.
Jackrabbit
While we’re at it let’s pass a law fining fat people for every pound over their BMI or place them in in jail until they confirm starting with this fat jackass.
rbernard
Seriously? We have a monster in the White House and this Ohio fat ass thinks kids being theatrical are a problem society should spin cycles on?
If Rep. Tim Schaffer is looking for something to do, he could make his doctors happy and show personal responsibility by starting a diet and exercise program for himself.
PanzerRider
An 11 year old boy dressing up in a sexy manner and performing a sexually suggestive dance routine on stage at a bar at 1 AM while men hand him cash is just being theatrical? But yeah, we should just ignore how disgusting this is because of the Cheeto in the White House and the fact that the politician bringing forth this bill is fat. Interesting moral code you have there. Get some help. You need it.
nowthumper
bEFORE TODAY, i NEVER KNEW THEY HAD KID DRAG QUEEN COMPETITIONS… and I certainly don’t condone drag sex acts.. however, let me point out something that we all know has been happening for years… and that is child modeling. When you have child beauty pageants where you dress your 5-year-old up to make her look like a hooker, or make her look like she is 20, instead of 5. Child beauty pageants have been , in my opinion, abusive. These kids grow up thinking that whats outside is the only thing that counts. They even have baby divisions. So, regular clean kid drag shows dont seem so bad.
Mikey E
IMO, gay and bi boys youth need wholesome activities which support them as boys, not activities which teach them to be entertainment for others or to teach them that they are less than other boys or that they are quasi-female. Parents of gay/bi youth should take advantage of programs like Scouting, where their sons can interact with other boys and thrive. It’s the opposite of this skeezy “drag” scene.
justgeo
Mikey E maybe wholesome activities like pure boy protein straight form the tapp!!!!
draven
Please pray for Nigel Shelby 15 years old and his family he committed suicide because he was being bullied at school. It’s all over social media and has made national news. I just hope things get better for all people today tomorrow and forever. Sad and broken heart this young person was going thru pain Gone to soon. RIP young one………. ; (
Brendan
Don’t want to be bullied. Don’t wear girls clothes
Invader7
We need NATIONAL & STATE legislation to put, dumb, bloated/fat , ass backwards, homophobic douche bags like this LOSER in PRISON for life. Those empty jails and prisons would be packed .CCC could recoup some of it’s investment $$$ …
Brendan
We need a piece of child rapist, pedo like you thrown in traffic
Brendan
I’m glad .. we must stop drag .. it has no place near kids l kids shouldn’t even be expressing their fake feminine self .. it was pushed on them
Brendan
Drag queens are potentially sexually corrupting