Qommittee’s Rally and March for Drag at the Kennedy Center on March 8, 2025 – Photo: Ward Morrison
Drag artists and advocates fighting back in the culture war against drag and LGBTQ rights have seen triumphs and setbacks this summer. Two recent federal court decisions — one in Florida, the other in Texas — illustrate opposite shifts in the war being waged over anti-drag laws in states around the nation.
In August, a federal appeals court upheld Florida’s law that bans performers or venues from conducting any “adult live performance” in the presence of a minor. The law defines “adult live performance” in terms loose enough to apply to practically any performer who appears in drag in a public space — from a drag brunch to a Pride parade — where a minor could be present, even with their parent or guardian’s consent.
“These laws — this is true in Florida, this is true in Oklahoma, this is true in Texas, where these laws have passed and are on the books — [are] vague, and they’re vague on purpose,” says Scott Simpson, an organizer with Qommittee, a national network of drag artists and advocates fighting hate and censorship. “They’re vague so they could have a chilling effect, so they could stop people from doing drag, so that drag doesn’t show up in communities.”
The laws’ murky language also serves to skirt First Amendment scrutiny, Simpson contends, and intentionally obscure the legal parameters, “so that you actually don’t know what they’re gonna enforce. A performer never knows what is going to be considered illegal under these laws. And that’s true in Florida.”
Responding to the Florida ruling, which gives state authorities the green light to enforce the so-called Protection of Children Act, Qommittee has published an attorney-reviewed “Know Your Rights” guide advising drag artists and performers in the state on how to keep performing and protect themselves.
The guide joins Qommittee’s “Drag Defense Handbook,” first issued in 2025 and recently updated, as a resource for drag artists to respond to threats, harassment, bans, and discrimination. The Florida guide, written with input from performers based in the state, instructs that “drag is NOT banned in Florida.”
Yet, even while under contention in courtrooms, the law has already been in effect on the ground, according to reports collected by Qommittee.
“We’ve seen many things,” says Simpson. “The biggest one is people are losing bookings, period, full stop. This is reducing bookings and availability of drag throughout the state of Florida. We have heard of venues who host drag getting intimidating letters from the state, outlining, in very vague terms, what they are no longer allowed to do, that sounds like drag, but it was not specific.”
Meanwhile, performers are receiving threats of violence from extremists, being doxxed, and being hounded and harassed by hate groups like Moms for Liberty. “We’ve seen this in other states, and they’ve done something similar in Florida, where they will take screenshots, or they’ll do what we call ‘vigilante surveillance,'” Simpson says. “And they’ll try to portray something that happened at an all-ages drag show as lewd.”
Under Florida’s law, according to the “Know Your Rights” guide, the state attorney general can claim almost anything is “lewd” to target performers, Prides, and queer venues, and make you fight it in court: “Even if your show is legal (and most are), you could be wrongfully targeted.”
In Texas, a federal judge took the target off the backs of drag artists in the state, in a ruling striking down a state law seeking to restrict drag shows. Coming a couple of weeks after the Florida law ruling, the Texas decision, by U.S. District Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas, declared the state’s Senate Bill 12 “adult entertainment” measure an unconstitutional violation of First Amendment rights.
The judge also noted the law’s “irredeemably vague” language, and offered a simple solution “for those who find such activities as described in this case offensive… just don’t go.” Hittner’s straightforward counsel from the bench sounded like music to the ears of Qommittee president and “qo-founder” Blaq Dinamyte, a D.C.-based drag king.
“This is what we’ve been saying,” they insist. “We’ve been saying this when it comes to gay and lesbian spaces. We’ve been saying this when it comes to queer and trans spaces. We’ve been saying this when it comes to any performance, and drag is just another category of performance where it’s like, ‘Hey, if you don’t like it, just don’t go.'”
A drag performer for over 20 years, Dinamyte teamed with drag supporter Simpson and performers nationwide to launch the all-volunteer Qommittee network in 2024.
“When the bomb threats and the threats of violence started popping up as a response — a rather late response, I think — to the influx of brunches and things,” Dinamyte recalls. “Because that had been going on for about ten years by the time the conservatives and extremists started paying attention to it.”
Qommittee has met these anti-drag threats with action, running Know Your Rights work for performers in states like Florida and Oklahoma; activism, leading marches and a donor petition around Trump’s Kennedy Center takeover; and information, via the “Drag Defense Handbook” and “Know Your Rights” guide.
The organization wants performers to be aware of all their resources in this ongoing fight, says Dinamyte, and continue to spread the joy of drag. That’s the Qommittee credo, after all: “Drag is joy, and we will not let them take it from us!”
“We need drag to be in every corner of every state, now more than ever,” says Simpson. “Because drag shows people the life that’s possible. A life where difference is celebrated, where we can hang out next to each other and connect in person, in real life, with community. That’s what drag is.”
“To try and censor drag is trying to censor self-expression,” adds Dinamyte. “And if we start here, where does it end?”
The judge in Texas had the right idea, they say. “I think we’re in a time period in this country where we don’t wanna hear another thing that is frivolous, you know, and arguing against drag when all you have to do is just stay your ass at home is a frivolous argument.”
For more information about the “Know Your Rights” guide, click here.
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