KS lawmaker wants to criminalize drag shows if children present, restrict gender affirming care

A Shawnee Republican wants Kansas to criminalize drag performances with children in the audience.

Amid a rash of anti-LGBTQ legislation nationwide, state Sen. Mike Thompson introduced a bill Tuesday that would classify drag performances as promoting obscenity to minors. Drag shows performed in front of children would be a misdemeanor on the first offense and felony on subsequent offenses.

According to a copy of the bill obtained by The Star, it defines drag as any performance in which the performer exhibits a gender identity different from the one they were assigned at birth using clothes, makeup and accessories to exaggerate the features of that gender.

The broad language could apply to a wide array of theater performances beyond drag shows.

During the election cycle Kansas GOP gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt spent days campaigning on a quickly debunked claim that the Kansas Department of Commerce was funding drag shows open to children.

“I think it can be, for a small child, confusing. I think it can be disturbing,” said Thompson, who is also backing a ban on gender affirming care for children and young adults. “At some point you have to draw the line and say this is wrong. You’ve got to protect kids.”

Rep. Brandon Woodard, a Lenexa Democrat and the first openly gay man elected to the Kansas Legislature, dismissed Thompson’s legislation. He noted that many of Thompson’s efforts have proven ineffective in the last four years.

The rash of legislation, Woodard said, is indicative of a misunderstanding of drag and the LGBTQ community. Drag, he said, is an art form.

“I’d be happy to take Senator Thompson to a drag show if he’d like to see what that is,” Woodard said. “Folks like Sen. Thompson are irresponsibly considering anything other than a straight Christian lifestyle as inappropriate.”

Thompson has been a vocal proponent of anti-LGBTQ legislation since joining the state Senate in 2020. He has repeatedly spoken in favor of legislation aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports.

Last month, Thompson filed legislation to enact one of the nation’s strictest bans on gender affirming care. The bill would criminalize providing that care to anyone under the age of 21. Similar legislation was approved in Utah last week but applied only to minors under the age of 18.

Thompson’s bill was referred to two committees. making it very difficult for the legislation to make it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Thompson said both bills were about protecting children. He said he picked 21 as the age for gender affirming care because an individual’s brain is not fully developed until the age of 25.

The Kansas bills are part of a broader trend of GOP-controlled legislatures pursuing anti-LGBTQ policies. After two straight years of failing to override vetoes from Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, legislation banning transgender athletes from girls and womens sports is once again a priority for legislative leaders in Kansas this year.

Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric has bled into the state’s debate over education. In his response to Kelly’s state of the state address last week Senate President Ty Masterson pledged to combat the “sexualized woke agenda” in schools.

Tom Alonzo, chair of Equality Kansas, said lawmakers need to focus on healthcare and roads and school finance rather than making a “foolish show” out of anti-LGBTQ legislation that targets their own constituents.

“This isn’t leadership,” he said. “What you’re doing is you’re harassing a group of people on purpose. And there’s something unethical and immoral about harassment like that.”

On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump’s campaign released a plan promising to ban gender affirming care if he regains the presidency in 2024.

In Missouri, lawmakers introduced 29 anti-LGBTQ bills as of Jan 31, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

In Missouri, Republican lawmakers have recently pounced at the opportunity to denounce a drag show performance at a Columbia diversity breakfast earlier this month. Republicans have used the show — and other examples across the state — to promote legislation that would ban kids from viewing the performances.

Democrats and LGBTQ rights advocates say the push to target the shows are part of a broader conservative attack on the LGBTQ community.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey wrote a letter on Tuesday urging the Missouri School Board Association to adopt a resolution banning the shows for students.

“Drag shows are inherently sexualized performances,” Bailey wrote in the letter. “They are an outward expression of a desired sexuality and sexual identity. They are intended to draw attention to human sexuality in a manner that appeals to prurient interests. Drag shows have no educational value and have no place in our public schools.”

The rhetoric has resulted in real safety concerns. The Kansas City Police Department has begun offering active shooter, tourniquet and CPR training to LGBTQ bars in the area following violent attacks at LGBTQ bars and clubs in recent years.

The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed to this report.