Texas ban on sexually explicit drag shows can be enforced, federal appeals court rules [View all]

Source: KXAN-TV Austin, TX/The Texas Tribune

Posted: Nov 6, 2025 / 09:36 PM CST
Updated: Nov 6, 2025 / 09:36 PM CST


(The Texas Tribune) — Texas can enforce a 2023 law that restricts some public drag shows, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. Senate Bill 12 prohibits drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children. The law would fine business owners $10,000 for hosting such performances, while those who violate the law could be hit with a Class A misdemeanor.

In September 2023, U.S. District Judge David Hittner declared the law unconstitutional, saying that it “impermissibly infringes on the First Amendment” and that it is “not unreasonable” to think it could affect activities like live theatre or dancing. More than two years later, a three-judge panel in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unblocked the law and returned the case to the district court.

As part of the ruling, the panel found that most of the plaintiffs — a drag performer, a drag production company and pride groups — failed to show that they intended to conduct a “sexually oriented performance,” and therefore, could not be harmed by the law. The ruling suggests that the federal judges don’t believe all drag shows are sexually explicit.

Critics of the ban have previously raised concerns that Republican lawmakers were portraying all drag performances as inherently sexual or obscene.

Read more: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-ban-on-sexually-explicit-drag-shows-can-be-enforced-federal-appeals-court-rules/