Last month, the Ohio House of Representatives voted to pass HB249, a bill known as the “Indecent Exposure Modernization Act,” which criminalizes drag performances in public. It will soon be voted on in the Ohio Senate.
Local transgender artist Manuka Honey Stix-Chimera said the bill “really does go beyond drag, it’s just about policing what everybody looks like.”
“Why should the government be able to tell you that you can’t wear a maxi skirt in the summertime?” they said. “I guess I just don’t understand what the point is. Are we paying for police to walk down the street and card people based on their clothes? We already don’t have money to figure out who’s been shooting kids on the West Side. So where are we getting the money for the transgender police force?”
The bill expands Ohio’s definition of “adult cabaret performance” to include performers who express a gender identity different from their sex assigned at birth using clothing, makeup or other markers.
Local queer politician Connor Moreton called HB249 “lazy legislation” because of how the bill is intentionally vague about what constitutes a ‘performance’—creating the possibility that people could be arrested for walking around in public if their appearance does not match the ‘biological sex’ they were born as.
The bill was first introduced by Republican Reps. Angela King of the 84th District and Josh Williams of the 44th District. It equates drag performers to strippers and exotic dancers, says that drag performances and public gender expression can be “harmful to minors,” and will restrict such “performances” so that drag can only be performed in designated adults-only venues. People found to be in violation will face up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, on top of misdemeanor or felony charges.
Rep. King refused CityBeat’s previous request for a comment. However, she did speak with the Ohio Capitol Journal, CityBeat’s content sharing partner, saying “the only purpose is to protect children and the innocence of Ohio’s children in both public and private spaces.”
One of the bill’s co-sponsors, Republican State Rep. Rodney Creech, was accused in 2025 of climbing into a minor female relative’s bed and inappropriately touching the minor, according to the Ohio Capital Journal. He was stripped of his committee roles and asked to resign from his position, but was quietly reinstated earlier this year.
“I wish I could believe that the sponsors of this bill actually care about children … but after reading the accusations against Rodney Creech, I just can’t,” Stix-Chimera said. “It’s asinine to me that the people in office don’t think that Ohioans can’t see what they’re doing, and that they’re doing what they love to do best, which is throwing stones to hide their own hands.”
The Ohio Capital Journal reported Creech has denied wrongdoing and, after a state criminal investigation, was not charged. He criticized the report as a “political smear piece,” and said “like President Trump, I am no stranger to false media attacks,” according to an article from Cleveland.com.
Enzo Abrenica a.k.a. Glitz, a local drag queen on staff at Bloom in Over-the-Rhine, says witnessing a drag show as a child “saved his life.”
“I spent a lot of time not being able to go outside as a kid. So I spent a lot of time just watching drag videos, witnessing queer culture from afar,” he said. “The first time my family ever took me to a drag show, they told me it was the happiest they’ve ever seen me … And looking back on 13-year-old me, had I not been able to experience a drag show in a public space like a library or a festival, and I had to wait until I was 21? I wouldn’t be the person I am today.”
Abrenica rejects the idea put forth by the bill that being transgender or a drag queen is inherently sexual, noting that no queen is “ever going to run out wearing something really crazy or obscene in front of children.”
“When I go out to Cincinnati Pride, kids run up to me and ask to take pictures because I’m like a princess to them. Kids are happy to see self-expression and creativity. And that’s really what drag is,” he said. “Drag is an art form. It’s a creative platform that bends the confines of gender. It has nothing to do with sex. And if that’s too confusing for you to understand, then it’s just not for you.”
Stix-Chimera echoed similar feelings, noting that drag queens at all-ages shows are probably “wearing more clothes than the people who are actually there.”
“Whenever I do all-ages events, I am given strict guidelines from whoever booked me that say, ‘y’all can’t wear this’ or ‘y’all can’t perform songs with profanity in them.’ It’s like any other job. If this is your target demographic, you cater to them, right?” they said. “Their big thing with this bill is how drag is ‘indecent exposure,’ but the queens at Pride, you can’t even see anything. We’re all wearing 42 pairs of tights and full body catsuits. Who’s showing skin? Not us!”
The bill is “hypocritical,” according to Stix-Chimera, given how much art, fashion and culture intended for straight, cisgender people revolves around wearing different clothes.
“Does this mean we can’t do Shakespeare anymore, since so many of his plays have men dressed as women? Do the Reds fans who dress up in tutus and bras for Opening Day have to stop that now, or are they only cracking down on the queer people because they know it sends a message?” Stix-Chimera said. “What people need to realize is that this bill isn’t about protecting kids, or indecent exposure. It’s about stomping on everybody’s rights. And if we can’t go outside in drag, y’all can’t go outside in tutus and bras.”
Transgender drag queen Lola Vuitton doesn’t understand why drag is so heavily policed compared to other art forms.
“There are so many things in movies, TV shows, music, where everything has a line for what is inappropriate. Of course, drag can be sexual, but it isn’t inherently. There’s a time and place for it just like in every other art form, and we’re not showing that to kids,” she said. “Drag is how I discovered who I am. And I don’t think it has anything to do with sex or my sexual orientation or anything like that. For me, it was really a door to being happier, just like it is for so many others.”
Drag queens already have a “scarlet letter” on them due to the precarious state of queer rights, according to local queer icon DJ Boywife. He says no performer would ever jeopardize their community by doing anything sexualized at an all-ages show because they “know the crosshairs they’re in.”
“No queen has ever said, ‘Oh, there’s an 11-year-old here. Let me do burlesque,'” he said. “The performers know the line. They’re not going to do anything kids shouldn’t see. To me, it’s basically the same argument as, like, letting your kids watch R-rated movies too young.”
To Vuitton, the issue is one of personal rights being stripped away regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum.
“My husband has co-workers who are very influential Republicans that know us and know our story. They’ve come to him and said, ‘This isn’t right. I don’t think trans people should be under a microscope like this, and I’m going to call our representatives to make a change,'” she said. “Once the idea that transgender people are scary or different or whatever is ripped away, everyone will see that we are truly just trying to live our lives and exist among everybody else.”
Boywife believes Ohio’s queer community will stand strong and keep expressing themselves regardless of if the bill passes or not, remarking “I’d like to see them try. I’m gonna die in this skirt.”
“If you look at history, I don’t think queer people just roll over and take shit. I think the reaction from our community has not been one of fear, but a call to action. People are ready to fight rather than just laying down and accepting it,” he said. “We earned our queerness, and they can’t take it away from us … We already don’t have that many spaces to do drag. But if there wasn’t a demand for drag shows, they wouldn’t happen. I think queer people know how loud their voices can be and they’re going to make them heard.”
Vuitton says history will vindicate people “staring in the face of adversity,” just as it always has been during the fight for queer rights over the past century-plus.
“I just have so much love for the people who came before me. 60, 70 years ago, people were trying to make this a crime, and they’re still trying to criminalize it today. But there’s so much power in standing up for what you believe in,” she said. “No bill, no law, no entity, no government could ever stop me from being myself. Even if they arrest me or kill me just for being who I am, my legacy will live on because I never stopped living my truth. And if every queer person just keeps living authentically, there will never be an end to our community.”
