In an era where the spectrum of freedom of speech has narrowed down significantly, Texas surprisingly took a stance in favor of the First Amendment. Known harsher censorship and restrictions, both Texas and Florida have been widely criticized for their tight reins on the literary market, to the point that it harkens back to the dark days of book banning seen in the 1990s – eerily reminiscent of fascism and Fahrenheit 451.
Interestingly, current content banning and censorship in Texas have swiftly moved from banning books to an attempt at making a whole class of people non-existent in public perception: drag performers. However, these attempts were checked when a federal judge in Texas ruled against the state’s law that sought to limit public drag performances, labelling it an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of speech. The judge in question successfully managed to permanently forbid the enforcement of this law, a significant achievement for the drag community in Texas. This ruling puts Texas in line with Tennessee, Montana, and Florida, other states where similar laws penalizing drag performers were struck down by federal judges.
Such a law, if propelled to the Supreme Court, could set an interesting precedent on how it would limit performances of other genres, not just drag. The clause prohibiting the use of “prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics” in public, part of the law, could infringe upon numerous iconic moments in music history.
But it was the most unexpected sector, sporting, that seemed to push the boundaries of broadcast freedom, when the NFL aired Prince’s infamous Super Bowl performance involving a faux phallic symbol, an act with a larger audience than any drag show could hope to possess.
However, this Article on the ruling for freedom of speech Above the Law, is not only a victory for Texas, but also a triumph for the First Amendment in the broader sense.
For more details, refer to the complete article US judge Throws Out Texas Ban On Drag Acts, Calls It Unconstitutional [Reuters].