An Arkansas Senate bill filed earlier this month that would classify drag performances as part of the “adult-oriented business,” along with escort agencies and other businesses advanced from the City, County, and Local Affairs Committee Affairs on Thursday.
According to a Little Rock television station, SB43, which was filed Republican state Sen. Gary Stubblefield, District 26, seeks to amend current Arkansas law concerning the definition of “adult-oriented business to include a drag performance with adult arcades, an adult bookstore or video store, an adult cabaret, an adult live entertainment establishment, an adult motion picture, an adult theater, a massage establishment that offers adult services, an escort agency, and a nude model studio.
The bill also states that an adult-oriented business cannot be located on public property or anywhere where a minor could view the adult-oriented business.
“It has taken only one week for the Republican Party to show their priorities are not on improving teacher pay, addressing criminal justice, or restoring reproductive choice for Arkansans, but on juvenile, divisive bills about drag shows that will do absolutely nothing to improve the quality of life for Arkansans,” the Democratic Party of Arkansas Chair Grant Tennille said. “Arkansas Democrats stand with the LGBTQ+ community and know SB43 is only the first of several planned attacks on our friends and family who are seeking only to live out their lives in peace in our state. It’s time to end these pointless, and undoubtedly, illegal distractions.”
