Drag shows targeted in adult-oriented business bill

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) — Senate bill 147, aimed at regulating adult-oriented businesses, is facing backlash from the LGBTQ community.

The community is arguing the drag show section of the bill does not need to be included, but Senator Lindsey Tichenor says that section is necessary.

“In recent years we’ve seen drag, which has traditionally been in an adult setting, move into the public sector where it’s being marketed and advertised as family friendly,” Sen. Tichenor said. “Children are present in front of drag performances, whereas in the past, they never were.”

Drag queen Andrew Newton Schaftlein says he feels the senator is singling out his community.

“We look at movies, we look at television, we look at stand-up comedy, dance; there are endless forms of entertainment that can be adult-oriented, and all of them have a space in the public sphere,” Schaftlein said.

Tichenor says the bill protects children from all explicit and obscene content from adult-oriented businesses.

“I think it’s important that we distinguish two different types of drag that we’re seeing right now,” she said. “That traditional, sexual performance, that’s always been in a nightclub for adults only and something different that we’re seeing now.”

That something different is what Schaftlein says helps children feel included no matter who they are or where they come from.

“Drag queen storytime is a place, a very safe little moment, where we can say our family is a little different, we look a little different, and isn’t it beautfiul that in God’s green earth, there are many ways to exist and it’s okay to exist exactly as you are,” Schaftlein said.

Both Tichenor and Schaftlein say they value the safety and well-being of children here in Kentucky and have had conversations about where drag shows fit into the adult-oriented business bill.