Senate Bill 43 was dragged through the mud.

Just one state south of Drury University in Little Rock, Arkansas, my hometown, lawmakers are proposing a bill that is causing an uproar in the LGBTQ+ community. Senate Bill 43 would define a drag performance as an “adult-oriented performance” and the bill would prohibit these performances in public spaces and could not be publicly funded. While on the surface prohibiting “adult-oriented performances” from public spaces seems like a good idea, the fear comes from vague language in the bill. According to pro-equality groups in Arkansas it targets non-binary and transgender people. 

Sponsors of the bill, such as state representatives Mary Bentley and Senator Gary Stubblefield claim that the bill is for protecting children. Bentley and Stubblefield claim that this is what their constituents want and when asked by lawmakers if children were being exposed to adult-oriented performances in public she said she was “inundated with pictures of what is happening here in Arkansas.”

“We’re trying to protect our children, not anti-anybody, just, again, keeping sexually explicit material away from our kids”

-Mary Bentley

“We don’t let our kids have tattoos, no matter where you’re at or who the parents are, you don’t let them go into a bar, you don’t let them go into the casino. I can list a number of things we don’t let little kids do because they are kids.”

-Gary Stubblefield

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas say that bills like this are a “red herring.” They also say that vague language allows for personal interpretation of the bill and makes it unenforceable. However, the definition they do provide for “drag” in the original form of the bill is not inherently sexual, making the bill almost moot. 

Minority leader Tippi McCullough of Little Rock was the only person to speak out against the bill on the floor, and even after amendments were made she is still concerned with the lack of clarity in the language. “I think if people are going to get penalized for doing something, they should understand what the parameters are of that and what the definitions are,” she said. She also brings up concerns of the logistics of the bill and how it will be civilly or criminally enforced. She also notes that Arkansas already has laws in place for “obscene” content. Bentley addresses these concerns by responding it will be up to a judge to interpret the law. 

“Laws like SB43 are a red herring and more broadly attempt to erase LGBTQ people from public life by forcing gender norms onto private businesses and individuals. These laws are fueled by the same paranoia banning books from our libraries and censoring teachers for treating all their students the same. But this bill is even more extreme, defining drag performers simply as people who “exhibit a gender identity” different from their gender assigned at birth and “perform” for two or more people.” 

-ACLU of Arkansas

However, pro-equality groups were celebrating on Monday, Jan. 30 after the bill was passed out of the House committee with an amendment that makes it so the bill no longer references “drag” or “assigned gender at birth.” 

Before: 

“To classify a drag performance as an adult-oriented business; and to add additional restrictions to an adult-oriented business.” 

“Drag performance means a performance in which one or more performers exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s gender assigned at birth.” 

After: 

“To add certain restrictions to an adult-oriented performance, and to define an adult-oriented performance.” 

After the amendment pro-equality groups breathed a sigh of relief; however, this is not the end of Senate Bill 43’s journey. Senate Bill 43 will now go back to the Arkansas Senate which passed the earlier version of the bill.