Over 100 protesters gathered in the hallways of the Iowa State Capitol on Tuesday, chanting, “Trans rights are human rights” and “Hey hey, ho ho transphobia has got to go,” as lawmakers on an Iowa House subcommittee considered the latest bill targeting transgender Iowans.
According to the explanatory section of HSB 158, the bill is intended to ensure “that no minor shall be present at or view a drag show.” But the bill is so incompetently written that it would potentially make it a felony to let anyone in Iowa under 18 attend a wide variety of performances that would never normally be called drag shows.
HSB 158 defines a drag show as any performance with where a main “performer sings, lip-syncs, dances, reads, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment, whether or not performed for payment” while that performer “exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth through the use of clothing, makeup, accessories, or other gender signifiers.”
The bill makes it a class D felony for an adult to knowingly take anyone under 18 to a performance covered by the HSB 158’s definition of a drag show. The owner, manager or anyone “who exercises direct control over a place of business” where a minor sees such a performance could also be charged with a class D felony. Under Iowa law, a class D felony carries the possibility of a fine of between $1,025 and $10,245 under the legislation and up to five years in prison.
The venue where a minor saw a prohibited show would be fined $10,000 per violation. The bill also allows “parent or legal guardian of a minor” to sue “for damages in the amount of not less than ten thousand dollars and up to fifty thousand dollars for each violation” of the drag show ban.
As Max Mowitz, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit One Iowa, pointed out in his testimony, the bill’s overbroad language could apply to taking a minor to a showing of such family friendly movies as Mrs. Doubtfire or Mulan. The language is so broad and vague, it could even apply to his testimony before the subcommittee and other occasions when a transgender person addresses an audience, Mowitz noted.
“I’m a transgender person. I was assigned female at birth, but I dress and live as a masculine person. So this bill targets me,” he said. “This bill also defines performance as reading. Today, I’m reading testimony in front of a group of people, from the perspective of a trans person. … It seems to me that the language of this bill could be bent to make it illegal for a minor to attend an event in which I am speaking, including this very subcommittee, simply because I live ‘in drag,’ as a different gender than the sex that I was assigned at birth, which is drag according to this legislation.”
James Obradovich, a lobbyist for the Independent Venue Association of Iowa, spoke in opposition of the bill, which he said could prevent performances of plays in which cross-dressing plays a central role, like Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio.
“We would make those things not possible to perform here,” he told the subcommittee. “I think Shakespeare, I think Beethoven’s operas are important things for everyone, for kids, for us old folks, to be exposed to. Those are really important things here in Iowa and I don’t think that’s really what you want to do.”
Danny Carroll of The Family Leader struck the tone that other proponents of HSB 158 echoed, quoting from the Bible and generally complaining about how culture has changed over the past half-century during his testimony Tuesday.
“It breaks my heart,” Carroll, a former chair of the Iowa Republican Party, said. “This is not the Iowa that I knew when I came here in 1971 that we would be having such a discussion whether or not children should go to a drag show and be allowed inside.”
“This is the Iowa that my grandchildren will know,” he continued. “I guess if you want to be a drag queen, you want to do that show, more power to you, free speech, have at it, leave the kids alone.”
The Family Leader, a rightwing Christian political group, is one of the most powerful conservative organizations in the state. It was formed by groups that had opposed same-sex marriage before the 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision recognizing their validity, and it continues to fight against LGBTQ rights.
Landon Stanley, a drag performer from Marshalltown who uses the stage name Lonika Lareese Knight and is the current Miss Teen Capital City Pride, gave the committee the personal perspective of a young performer.
“I’ve been performing in drag since age 11, participating in numerous shows across Iowa,” Stanley said. “Six years in the industry, I have never experienced anything mentally and/or physically harmful.”
The 17-year-old performer also addressed the broader context of the bill.
“This bill not only limits our constitutional right to freedom of speech, but also distracts from real issues affecting my home state and hometown of Marshalltown, such as homelessness, drug use, poverty and, more importantly, gun rights.”
Rep. Helena Hayes, a Republican from New Sharon and chair of the three-person subcommittee, said she was voting in favor of the bill because she believes it can change, so it won’t impact “perfectly acceptable” performances, just drag shows “that have obscene material, that have profanity, that have any inappropriateness for young children.”
Hayes did not define “any inappropriateness,” but she did assure everyone in the committee room that voting in favor of HSB 158 — one of 18 bills aimed at LGBTQ Iowans introduced this year — does not mean she is anti-trans.
“You cannot say that if we want to address the content of drag performances, that automatically makes us anti-trans,” she said.
Hayes, it should be noted, has voted in favor of other bills undermining the rights of transgender Iowans during her two terms in the Iowa House.
Rep. Heather Hora of Washington joined her Republican colleague in supporting HSB 158. Rep. Elinor Levin of Iowa City, the lone Democrat on the subcommittee, opposed the bill.
HSB 158 now moves to the House Education Committee for consideration. Given that the bill seeks to regulate performances outside of schools, the Education Committee would not seem to be the appropriate committee for it. But Rep. Skyler Wheeler is the committee’s chair.
The Hull Republican has been a leader on anti-LGBTQ bills since he joined the House in 2017. Wheeler is also the lawmaker who proposed HSB 158.
Wheeler may not be a household name in Iowa, but the protesters in the Capitol’s corridors were clearly aware of him and his work.
“Fuck Skyler Wheeler” was one of their chants.
