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Texas-based drag queen Kylee Ohara Fatale slams the effort by Republican lawmakers to ban drag and attack the trans community in her state. (Kylee Ohara Fatale/Mark Mayr)

Within the space of just a few days, two Texas Republicans introduced separate piece of legislation targeting drag performers who perform in front of minors.

Its part of a wave of legislation across red states that Republicans say are about protecting children.

But Texas drag queen Kylee Ohara Fatale sees through the rhetoric she says its a distraction technique to mask the real target.

That is, of course, to attack the trans community as well as trans youth, Kylee tells PinkNews.

These bills are not to protect children as they say because, if that was the case, we shouldnt be having conversion therapy.

We wouldnt have Hooters being allowed to let children into their restaurant restaurants that are showing sexualised images and sexualised objects that kids can still go to these days.

Conservative legislators in over a dozen states including Texas have proposed measures that would restrict drag performances. A majority outright ban what Republicans deem sexual public performances by male and female impersonators in the presence of minors.

This language could very easily, many believe, be used against trans people.

I really hate it the vague wording in a lot of these drag bills are literally attacking trans people, Kylee says. That makes me so scared because my trans sisters cant even go speak in church or sing in church because basically now that [would be] illegal.

Its easy to target the weird looking group drag queens but essentially were like crazy party clowns, she adds.

Its easy to target us and make us out to be the villains because its so hard for the outside person to understand drag.

And by then doing this and united in this knotted front of hate to attack drag queens, they can sneakily throw in all these bills that are actually to damage and attack the trans community.

For Kylee, drag has been life changing. It allowed her to figure out who she was, to embrace her gayness.

Drag showed me, personally, that what I was living the first 23 years of my life was the drag, and then this is the real me.

While Kylee worries about Texas potentially following Tennessees lead, by actually passing legislation that would stop drag queens from performing, she knows shed be OK.

For me, drag is a job. At the end of the day, if God forbid, knock on wood, these drag bills passed and Im out of a job, its not going to affect how I exist.

If these bills pass, for most trans people, it is literally going to affect how they exist. Its basically making being trans illegal. Its the erasure of the trans community.

Over the past year, Texas has made headlines for governor Greg Abbotts continued attacks on the affirming families of trans youth in the state. In February 2022, Abbott ordered the states child protective services toinvestigatehealthcare providers and families of trans kids who help them medically transition in any way.

The order led to parentsliving in fearthat their kids would be ripped away from them, and a legal battle that made it all the way to theTexas Supreme Court.

Republicans in the state have repeatedly lashed out at gender-affirming healthcare both for trans youth and trans adults. Theyve also banned trans youth fromparticipating in school sportsand introduced legislation rolling back discussions on LGBTQ+ topics in schools, also known as aDont Say Gay or Trans bill.

In March alone, two Republican lawmakers introduced separate anti-drag bills.

Republican congressman Steve Toth filed a bill that would ban drag performances and create a cause of action that would allow people who attended a drag show as a child totake the performer to court.

Bryan Slaton, a Republican state representative with ahistory of attacking drag, filed a bill that would make it a felony if a drag performance occurred in the presence of a minor.

When it comes to the fight for LGBTQ+ and trans rights, Kylee says the best thing that anyone can do is be seen. Its a big reason why she calls herself the pop of colour, the POC of Texas because shes the loudest thing in the room visibly if not audibly when she shows up in bright kaleidoscopic garb.

Thats why Im always so colourful with everything I do so that people can look at me, so that I can speak on the issues that are near and dear to my heart, which of course, inclusion as well as just stopping all queer hate, she says. Hate is such a foolish emotion, especially when it comes to human beings. Were all the same on the inside.

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See more here:
Drag queen points out the huge flaw in Republican anti-drag logic - PinkNews