Four proponents testify in support of Ohio drag ban bill — including a member of a hate group

Drag queens ride on a float during a Stonewall Pride parade. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A member of an anti-LGBTQ hate group spoke in favor of a bill that would prevent drag performers from performing in places that aren’t a designated adult entertainment facility during Wednesday’s Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee meeting.

About 50 people submitted proponent testimony and four people publicly testified in support of House Bill 245.

State Reps. Angie King, R-Celina, and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania, introduced the bill last summer which would also expand the definition of adult cabaret performances to include “performers or entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.”

HB 245 bill includes drag performers, topless dancers, go-go dancers, strippers and exotic dancers. 

Proponent testimony

Jana Warnecke, a Florida chapter leader for Gays Against Groomers, testified during the committee hearing. Gays Against Groomers is identified as a hate group according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“(HB 245 is) a pivotal piece of legislation that aims to protect our vulnerable youth from being prematurely exposed to sexual material or performances in unauthorized locations,” Warnecke said.  “This bill would be a step in the right direction of regulating adult entertainment to protect juveniles and uphold community standards.”

Two people who testified talked about previous pride events in Celina in Mercer County. 

“For the past three years, a local pride event has included a ‘drag queen’ show in our city Park during their Pride Day celebration,” said Jason King, President of Celina’s City Council and Rep. King’s brother. “The so called ‘performances’ were filled with obscene sexual gestures, partial nudity, and obscene signs carried about by adults and children alike.”

Rep. King previously said during her sponsor testimony for the bill that seeing a video from this annual event led to her drafting this bill.  

“There’s a time and a place for adult-themed performances, if one should choose or prefer such, but not in the presence of children or unsuspecting families using the parks on the day of such events,” Jason King said. “Ohio’s children should be protected from obscene performances in public spaces. Our children and our families are under attack.” 

Shawn Meyer also raised concerns over what happened at the Celina event. 

“It is my opinion that children are generally neither intellectually nor emotionally equipped to process complex sexual themes in a healthy way,” Meyer said. “Younger children in particular are especially vulnerable to confusion and potential exploitation arising from premature introduction to sexual messages.”

State Rep. Richard Brown, D-Canal Winchester, peppered the proponents with questions — asking if they believe all drag shows are harmful to children or obscene, to which they said yes. 

“I believe that they could also be potentially harmful especially for young children because of the confusing nature of those performances,” Meyer said. 

David Mahan with the Center for Christian Virtue questioned why legislation trying to ban adult cabaret performers from performing outside of cabarets is controversial.

“It simply prioritizes the fundamental needs of children over the superficial desires of adults, by applying the standards for ‘pandering obscenity’ and ‘material harmful to minors’ currently defined in code, to obscene public performances,” he said. 

Opposition to the bill 

Opponents of the bill held a press conference immediately following the committee meeting. 

“We’ve seen explicit confirmation today that this legislation is incredibly broad and carries with it extreme risks and people’s first amendment rights,” said Cam Ogden, policy fellow for Equality Ohio. “We remain extremely concerned about the implications this has towards the criminalization of transgender people performing or existing in public.”

It was not lost on Ogden that this meeting took place during Pride Month. 

“To have a hearing like this during Pride Month is a bit of a slap in the face to the community that is currently expressing itself and celebrating itself,” Ogden said. “The mere idea that drag or transgender people could be categorized in the same list as strippers, topless dancers, all sorts of different things like that is incredibly offensive.”

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