Arizona governor vetoes 4 bills targeting 'drag' shows, performers

PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed four bills Friday designed to target “drag’’ shows and performers.

“Intolerance has no place in Arizona despite the Legislature’s frequent attempts to pass legislation that says otherwise,’’ the Democratic governor said in a single veto message on all four.

She said the four bills “are attempts to criminalize free expression and ostracize the LGBTQIA+ community both implicitly and explicitly, creating statutory language that could be weaponized by those who choose hate over acceptance.’’

“I have made it abundantly clear that I am committed to building an Arizona for everyone and will not support any legislation that attempts to marginalize our fellow Arizonans,’’ Hobbs said.

Only one of the measures specifically mentions “drag shows.’’ Senate Bill 1026, sponsored by Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, would have barred the use of public money or state-funded institutions for a “drag show targeting minors.’’

It defined that as any adult performers dressing in clothing and makeup of the opposite sex to exaggerate “gender signifiers and roles’’ and engage in singing, dancing or a monologue or skit to entertain a target audience under 18.

Its breadth bothered Sen. Priya Sundareshan, a Tucson Democrat.

“This could include all sorts of beloved childhood movies and productions like ‘Mulan’ and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ any other popular show that includes people dressing in clothing of the opposite gender,’’ she said.

Senate Minority Leader Mitzi Epstein, D-Tempe, said it would preclude her from dressing up as Thomas Jefferson to read the Bill of Rights to a group of children at a school or municipal event.

Three other measures took different approaches in what proponents said where efforts to protect children from “sexually explicit performances.’’

Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, sponsor of two of the measures, insisted he was not trying to limit what is available to adults. He stripped the words “drag shows’’ from his bills in an effort to show he was not targeting transgender individuals.

But there already are laws keeping children out of adult-oriented businesses. And supporters made it clear that, with or without those words, the measures were aimed at those performing in drag.

“We all know what we’re talking about here,’’ said Senate President Warren Petersen, a Gilbert Republican. “We’re talking about men wearing bikinis, dancing weird, sexually, strangely in front of children. I imagine everyone’s seen the videos.’’

Some videos available on social media show performances by men in drag with children in the audience.

“Folks, if you’ve seen it, you know this stuff is gross, it’s disgusting, it’s perverse,’’ Petersen said. “And that’s what we’re talking about here.’’

Sen. Anna Hernandez, a Phoenix Democrat, argued against expanding existing laws that already govern not just who can view an adult-oriented performance but also protect minors from exposure to nudity and sex acts. These bills included an expanded definition that could make criminals out of people performing activities that are now legal, even with children present, she said.

She said it would have been one thing had the proponents sought to regulate obscene performances and access by minors. That would be a better and clearer test, Hernandez said, because courts have defined that to be materials that are not only “patently offensive’’ but that, when taken as a whole, lack any serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

“The worry is that the language of this bill will be perverted in order to continue to be applied to drag shows because drag shows often focus on over-the-top humor, sometimes sexual in nature, and it may be offensive to some individuals that hear it,’’ she said.

Tucson Republican Sen. Justine Wadsack, author of one of the bills and a supporter of all four, had a different take.

“We have absolute evidence that these drag performers are targeting to perform in front of children,’’ Wadsack said during debate on the measures. What they are doing itself is evidence of that targeting, she said.

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“Why, why do grown men want to dress up as women and read to young children?’’ she asked. “Why not just dress in jeans and a T-shirt and read to the children?’’

What it is all about, Wadsack said, is “sexually grooming our children.’’

One of the measures sponsored by Kern had nothing to do with children. SB 1030 would have required counties to adopt specific zoning ordinances for businesses that conduct “sexually explicit performances.’’

“My intent of this bill is to regulate sexually explicit drag shows,’’ but other drag shows could remain, he said.

“As we all know, drag shows have been around as long as human beings have been around,’’ Kern said during debate. “Although I’ve never been to one, I have watched the movie ‘Tootsie’ and ‘Mrs. Doubtfire.’ And I’ve enjoyed them.’’

He said he wants to protect children from what his bill would define as sexually explicit drag shows.

“Why a parent would even want to bring a child to one of these shows is beyond me,’’ he said.

Only thing is, his SB 1030 makes no mention of minors.

Instead, its provisions would regulate the location of any sexually explicit performances, specifically including anything with an “intention to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires or appeal to the prurient interest.’’

Sundareshan called that particularly vague, saying what can arouse varies from person to person.

Kern’s SB 1028 took a different approach, seeking to bar “sexually explicit performances’’ on public property or anywhere the person knows or has reason to know it could be viewed by a minor. It used the same definition of that phrase as the other measure about intent to arouse.

SB 1698, sponsored by Wadsack, also focused on minors. It sought to create a new felony of “unlawful exposure to an adult oriented performance.’’

As originally written, the measure specifically included drag shows. But Wadsack agreed to remove that wording, instead making it a crime to bring a child into an adult-oriented business.

Sen. Christine Marsh, D-Phoenix, said that made the bill “much better.’’ But she said what remained still had “some pretty serious implications.”

A felony violation “would apply to a parent or anyone else who brigs a minor to any adult-oriented business,’’ Marsh said. The same penalty would apply to the performer, who would have to figure out if there was someone under 18 in the audience.

Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, said he sees a bigger problem in the legislation, whether any of the bills use the words “drag shows’’ or not. The intent is clear, he said.

“These attacks on drag performances and the trans community are a slippery slope toward authoritarian rule,’’ he said. “It should concern everyone when anyone becomes the punching bag of an ideology.’’

Mendez said efforts like this won’t make transgender people disappear. “This community will not back down from these kinds of attacks,’’ he said.