A federal judge invoked the late music icon Dolly Parton in his ruling overturning Texas’s ban on drag shows.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner, a Reagan appointee, struck down the 2023 state law that looked to restrict drag shows. In his ruling, Hittner said the law, known as Texas Senate Bill 12, was unconstitutional as it restricted free speech in violation of the First Amendment.
Hittner invoked Parton in his ruling, which came down the day she died.
“There are ‘erotic’ elements in countless popular performances that could be subject to both civil and criminal penalties under S.B. 12,” he wrote.
“Because S.B. 12 does not specify who determines whether a performance “appeals to the prurient interest,” or require that the work be taken as a whole, a single moment of eroticism could condemn an entire performance to criminal or civil penalties,” he continued, addding it was just as many people had “chastised Dolly Parton as a voluptuous sex symbol because of her big hair.”
He also wrote that because the law was so broad, activities as benign as “cheerleading, dancing, live theater, and other common public occurrences” could be viewed as civil or criminal violations under the law.
The ruling means that the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton, the scandal-ridden Republican nominee for Senate, cannot endorse the law.
The law had made it so business owners who were found to be in violation for hosting drag events could be fined $10,000, and drag performers could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a one-year jail sentence in Texas.
One plaintiff in the case, a drag queen who performs under the stage name Brigitte Bandit, hailed the ruling online, saying “Drag is free speech, b----.”
She also announced that she would perform as Parton in an Austin bar on Saturday in her honor.
The judge also offered some advice to those who still don’t want to be in the presence of drag shows, stating the obvious: simply don’t attend.
“Finally, for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive,” he wrote. “The solution is relatively simple ... just don’t go.”
