Drag story time bill heard for first time in Texas House committee

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Members of a Texas House committee debated legislation for the first time that would penalize public libraries for hosting a drag story time event for children. The chamber never took up similar legislation just two years ago, effectively killing it during the previous session, so Monday's hearing could revive an item identified as a priority by some Texas Republicans.

The House Committee on State Affairs took no action Monday morning on Senate Bill 18, which would strip public funding for any library that hosts a kids' reading event led by a drag performer. The committee left it pending after hearing from several witnesses who mostly spoke in opposition to the proposal, though one member suggested Monday it's likely to pass the committee and potentially go to the House floor for an official vote.

Rep. Lacey Hull, R-Spring Branch, introduced the bill at Monday's committee hearing, the next step in the legislative process after it landed in the House's lap following approval earlier this year in the Texas Senate. The legislation, authored by Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, passed along party lines in the upper chamber and proposes that a “municipal library may not receive state or other public funds if the library hosts an event at which a man presenting as a woman or a woman presenting as a man reads a book or a story to a minor for entertainment and the person being dressed as the opposite gender is a primary component of the entertainment.” Additionally, that funding freeze would take effect during the fiscal year that follows whenever the drag story time event happened.

Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, first asked Hull whether this proposed law would require libraries to check the genitals of any speakers who read to children to confirm their sex so that they're not in violation.

"I believe that would be up to the library to decide that," Hull responded, offering no further explanation.

A total of 14 witnesses signed up Monday to speak publicly about the legislation, with only three of those people doing so in support of it. Megan Benton, who works with the conservative advocacy group Texas Values, said the bill is needed to protect children from the confusion of seeing someone dressed in drag and concerns about them being exposed to inappropriate content.

"If libraries allow events inappropriate for children, yet marketed to them, to take place, public libraries stop being a safe place for children," Benton said. "When men dress as women and vice versa in front of children, it creates confusion of their ever-growing minds."

The other 11 speakers who said they opposed the measure included Brigitte Bandit, an Austin-based drag performer who sometimes hosts reading events for kids and their families. She came to the Capitol in 2023 to decry the previous version of this legislation, Senate Bill 1601, which passed the Senate but failed to be considered in the House. At Monday's hearing, she wore a dress with the Texas flag and a list of the names of church leaders who she said had been accused of abusing children in the last year.

"Drag story times promote inclusivity, acceptance, kindness, empathy, compassion and literacy, which Texas lacks in," Bandit said. "Why are we attacking drag queens? These bills do nothing to protect children. If you truly cared about protecting children, maybe you'd do something about the many pastors who have been exposed for harming children, whose names I wear on the front of my dress."

The House state affairs committee could take up SB 18 again at a later date. If it's approved there, then that would set it up potentially for discussion and an eventual vote on the House floor before the session ends on June 2.