Bill regulating drag shows advances through Arkansas Senate

A bill that would regulate drag performances passed through the Arkansas Senate Tuesday on a vote of 29 to six.

Senate Bill 43 would classify performances involving cross dressing as “adult-oriented businesses” if they are done in view of children. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Gary Stubblefield of Branch, said he’s gotten “vulgar and obscene” pushback from detractors of the bill, which he says underscores the need to protect children from drag performances.

“Someone emailed me and said that I hated drag queens,” he said. “That's a lie. I don’t hate anybody. I do hate sin, because that’s the way I was raised.”

Stubblefield says the bill would only apply to sexually explicit material shown in drag shows, though that isn’t clearly defined in the bill’s text. Sen. Stephanie Flowers, D-Pine Bluff, accused Stubblefield of putting a target on the backs of drag queens and the LGBTQ community as a whole.