A federal judge in Texas has stopped the state’s ban on drag performances, which was scheduled to go into place Friday, enforcing a temporary injunction on the measure in a win for LGBTQ rights adv…

A federal judge in Texas has stopped the state’s ban on drag performances, which was scheduled to go into place Friday, enforcing a temporary injunction on the measure in a win for LGBTQ rights advocates.

A group of drag performance groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, filed a suit against the state early this month claiming that the law is overly broad and infringes on their freedom of speech.

“The Court finds there is a substantial likelihood that S.B. 12 as drafted violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution under one or more of the legal theories put forward by the Plaintiffs,” District Judge David Hittner wrote in his opinion Thursday.

The law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott ® in late June, bans “sexually oriented performances” that take place in the presence of minors. LGBTQ advocates argued that the bill’s definition of performances is too broad and unconstitutional.

  • IHeartBadCode@kbin.social
    62·
    1 year ago

    Protecting minors must come with it protections for fundamental rights. This is what these legislators consistently forget.

    It’s not enough in law to just say “you cannot do something vulgar in front of kids.” Law requires more explicit language. I get a “particular group” tends to dislike 100 page bills, but that is what is required.

    Broad language allows interpretation in ways that actually violate free speech. And when one attempts to promote protection at the expense of freedom courts see that as a pretextual basis for just robbing people of their rights.

    The conservative groups that so want to “protect children” if they actually sought that as a goal, then their proposals for that protection would actually contain language that took effort to write. Instead they weakly pitch these two or three page laws that are easily dismissed as gross violations of basic rights.

    And ultimately that’s how you can see that those who are truly conservative and those who represent them are vastly different. The ones getting elected don’t even try to make comprehensive law, they put out a paltry effort, collect their check, and complain about judges. These representatives are pathetic at doing the job they indicate they so passionately advocate.

    That said, plenty wrong with conservatism in general but that’s been covered to death by others before me. But if I was a conservative I would be pissed at SB12’s weak language and that this outcome from the courts was a forgone conclusion for such a shoddy piece of legislation.