Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the final result of a records request to Rep. Williams’ office.
Rep. Josh Williams, a Republican from the Toledo area, told CityBeat he started receiving photos from his constituents that caused him alarm.
“My constituents have sent me photos of what they consider borderline obscenity or obscene conduct in the presence of a minor,” Williams said in an interview with CityBeat.
CityBeat requested these photos from Williams’ office immediately after our interview on May 21–Williams said he would hand over the alleged nefarious photos “if I have them in my possession at the time the request comes in.” On May 29, CityBeat received an email from Williams’ office with the results:
“There are no responsive records. No records were withheld.”
Even without these photos, Williams is steadfast in his conviction that, in Ohio, there are drag queens performing so sexually for children that it should amount to a crime.
So, welcome to the stage…House Bill 249, or you can refer to her by her drag name, the “Indecent Exposure Modernization Act.”
But this is the second time this bill has been introduced – the first version, House Bill 245, died in committee last year. Now, Williams and his fellow primary sponsor, Rep. Angela King (R-Celina), are confident this bill will make it to the finish line.
“No other state has drafted legislation that mirrors this,” Williams told CityBeat.
CityBeat asked Williams if part of his extensive research for drafting this bill included attending a drag show.
“Absolutely not,” Williams replied firmly.
Those who live, work and believe in the world of drag told CityBeat why they think this bill is both dangerous and unnecessary, while legal scholars walked us through the winding details of the proposed legislation, underscoring the ambiguity and the calculated specifics behind what LGBTQIA+ advocates call, plain and simple, a drag ban.
A targeted fix or a culture war proxy?
House Bill 249 expands the definition of “adult cabaret performances” under the Ohio Revised Code to explicitly include performances by individuals using prosthetic body parts to simulate nudity. The bill would limit such performances in public or anywhere minors could be present, imposing potential criminal penalties on those who violate it.
Opponents argue the bill targets drag performers without naming them outright, sidestepping constitutional protections by framing it as content-neutral. But State Rep. Dani Isaacsohn, a Democrat from Cincinnati, believes the bill is ultimately a smoke and mirrors show.
“This is the strategy,” Isaacsohn told CityBeat. “Distract with culture war bills that get headlines, that aren’t going to go anywhere or don’t have a real impact on people’s lives, while at the same time pass legislation that will either actively do harm or fail to pass legislation that would make a real difference for people.”
CityBeat was able to connect with one of the bill’s 42 cosponsors by press time, State Rep. Mark Johnson (R-Chillicothe). Johnson appeared to know little about the bill he signed onto.
“I mean, this is not my forte,” Johnson told CityBeat following a question on the bill’s necessity. “This is the two sponsors’ bill. You know, I’m not going to be critical of what they chose to do, they just asked me to co-sponsor, and I said, ‘Yes.’ It’s that simple. I’m friends with these two sponsors, and they’re pretty quality people, and I trust her judgment.”
Isaacsohn sees the bill as political theater — an effort to rile up conservative voters with an issue that doesn’t materially impact most Ohioans, if it exists at all.
“There are very few families in Ohio who wake up in the morning and worry about how people dress in bars,” he said. “They’re worried about paying rent. About daycare. This bill doesn’t address any of those things.”
For his part, Williams insists the legislation isn’t aimed at drag shows or queer performers at all. He rejects the notion that this bill is a drag ban, or that it even targets LGBTQIA+ people at all.
“I’m going to go on an abundance of caution and say, look, every adult performer in the state of Ohio is going to be held to the same standard,” Williams said. “Whether you are male, female or representing a gender that doesn’t comply with what you were assigned at birth. That’s fine. I’m making sure all adult performers are held to the same exact standard. Do not engage in an obscene performance in the presence of a minor. Period.”
Still, the bill’s language appears to reach squarely toward the drag community by referencing performers who use prosthetic body parts such as breastplates to simulate a womanly figure. This is a standard of many drag queens, but the proposed law requires some pretty clear faux-nipple slip to amount to a real crime in front of the right audience.
What the bill actually says
House Bill 249 modifies sections of Ohio Revised Code 2907.01, which currently defines obscenity and harmful material to juveniles. The bill aims to broaden these definitions by explicitly covering the use of prosthetic body parts that simulate nudity, something Lady Phaedra said is not usually the objective of breastplates and is never the objective in front of children.
“I’m not gonna walk into a drag queen story hour in a bikini,” said Phaedra, a drag queen who often performs for mixed-age audiences and kids. “I’m gonna go in wearing something whimsical and flowy and very modest. Because I’m there to read, I’m not there to do anything else. I’m there to promote literacy.”
P.H. Dee, another Cincinnati-area queen, told CityBeat that assessing the appropriateness of drag costuming is the most essential part of the gig.
“We are asked to make sure that our costuming is appropriate for that kind of gig,” she said. “So, you as the performer, you have what you need in order to make it successful. If you are kind of bending those rules, then there’s consequences. You won’t be asked back. But that doesn’t really happen. That doesn’t really happen. I’m not wearing leather BDSM harnesses in front of children, right? I’m not wearing those anyway.”
But to Williams, it’s not about who is or isn’t keeping the prosthetic girls covered, it’s about how performers could hypothetically get away with it.
“Under current Ohio definitions of indecent exposure, obscenity and the like, [a prosthetic breast] would not meet the statutory definition of nudity,” Williams said. “Because this is not a female breast below a certain area of the areola.”
Ryan Thoreson is an associate law professor at the University of Cincinnati. He told CityBeat that even if a drag queen is wearing a breast appropriately in front of children — showing no areola — performers could still run into problems if this bill becomes law.
“I think it’s just different in the drag context, where it is a performer who is not necessarily using a breastplate to be sexually arousing or sexually exciting. It’s part of the silhouette and the look, right?” Thoreson said. “I do think that, even in those contexts that pretty clearly fall outside the bounds of the law, you do run some risk that you’ll have a parent who thinks that all drag is inherently sexual, or a law enforcement officer who thinks that all drag is inherently sexual. Even if that is unlikely to be found as falling within the remit of the law, it doesn’t necessarily stop a police officer from halting the event or a parent from complaining and a library needing to retain an attorney, or real problems for organizations that put on these events that are family-friendly.”
One of those organizations is Queen City Charities, a nonprofit organization that raises thousands of dollars annually for local LGBTQIA+ organizations through events like Rhinegeist’s Wigs and Waffles, Drag Bingo in Washington Park and more.
Lady Phaedra is a regular performer for Queen City Charities; she’s also on the organization’s board. She said the kid-friendly and kid-focused events are truly tailored to not only what’s appropriate for kids, but what interests them.
“Obviously, with kids, if minors are going to be there, we’ve got to be very mindful,” she said. “So if I’m hosting the show, it means I have the microphone in my hand the entire time. I’ve got to be mindful of the jokes. I’ve got to be mindful of my language. But you know, I have an arsenal of kid-friendly jokes at my disposal, dad jokes, if you will, that I can pull from if I need them. But kids love the Top 40 songs. They love the songs they hear on the radio every day. They love songs from their favorite movies. They love songs performed by people dressed as their favorite characters.”
Justin Hucke, founder and president, said some Queen City Charities events are general admittance while others are adults-only, and they know the difference. He wishes lawmakers behind the bill would attend any drag show to learn the difference, too.
“Talk to people, go walk by one of these events, don’t be hateful,” Hucke told CityBeat. “Don’t be there to cause a disturbance, but go witness it for yourself. Again, it circles back to, our purpose is to bring joy, bring happiness, spread positivity and raise money for individuals in our own backyard who need it. These are individuals who face a significantly higher rate of homelessness, mental health issues; they don’t have access to care that they need, and yet there aren’t people there who want to help them, they want to attack them. So how is that productive for us as a city, as a region, as a state, as a society, to be hateful of other people because we don’t understand or we don’t like them? That’s not your choice to make.”
Constitutional tensions
Williams said he reviewed similar bills introduced in other states and adjusted HB 249 to avoid the constitutional pitfalls that struck down laws in places like Tennessee and Florida. No state bills targeting drag have become law in the United States. Tennessee and Montana have crept close to success, but their respective bills have been tangled up in the courts for being overly broad and potentially unconstitutional. Williams told CityBeat he learned from these bills when crafting HB 249.
“When I saw a state introduce a bill that automatically classified drag performances as obscene, I knew that was going to be a problem,” Williams said. “That’s content-based, and it’s unconstitutional.”
Instead, HB 249 keeps the legal definition of obscenity aligned with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Miller v. California standard, which defines obscenity based on whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find the material appeals to prurient interest; depicts sexual conduct in an offensive way; and lacks serious artistic, political or scientific value.
But Thoreson questions whether HB 249 is truly content-neutral, in every sense.
“The problem with that is that juveniles, different juveniles, are going to think that different things are or different things will be inappropriate to different juveniles, right?” Thorseon said. “So what is inappropriate for you know, how many 17-year-olds watch Drag Race already and are regularly exposed to drag performance, understand the context in which it occurs, or watch other material that is far more sexually suggestive or explicit than run of the mill drag,” said Thoreson.
Thoreson points out that the references to prosthetics and gender non-conforming performance styles are not random — they’re coded language.
“I think for legislatures, perhaps like Ohio’s, that have already banned gender-affirming care, already restricted bathroom access and already limited materials that kids can access in school and restricted kids from playing sports, trans kids from playing sports, you need to find new ways to target the trans community if that is something that is a political priority for you,” Thoreson said. “I don’t think that it’s incidental that this bill really centers on protecting children as a purported rationale.”
‘Protecting children’
Protecting children is the most prominent refrain for the authors of HB 249.
King, the bill’s other primary sponsor, did not respond to CityBeat’s request for comment on this story, but she echoed the concern in a press release following the bill’s introduction in April.
“I am deeply committed to protecting our children,” said King. “As a mother and as a legislator, I believe Ohio families should feel safe taking their children to a city park without the risk of coming across an event or person performing in a way that incorporates themes, imagery and acts intended for mature audiences.”
As of now, there is no publicly documented evidence of a drag queen being charged with or investigated for any sex crimes against children in the state of Ohio, but one of HB 249’s cosponsors has.
State Rep. Rodney Creech (R-West Alexandria) was the subject of a state criminal investigation into alleged sexual misconduct with a minor teenage girl in 2023. The investigation concluded in October with no criminal charges, but state investigators said there were findings of “concerning and suspicious” behavior by Creech during the investigation, according to the Dayton Daily News.
“After a full review I find that [Creech’s] behavior during the time of the investigation was concerning and suspicious. However, the evidence falls short of the threshold needed for prosecution,” wrote Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll, a Republican who was asked by the state to review the case, according to Dayton Daily News.
Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman asked Creech to resign before removing him from his committee posts, the outlet reported.
Creech’s office did not respond to CityBeat’s request for comment on his support of HB 249.
Drag performers across the state have spoken out against the bill, saying it threatens not just their livelihood, but their safety. Many drag events are hosted at LGBTQIA+ bars or small venues that cater to adults only — but fear of legal scrutiny could make owners and event organizers wary.
Williams dismisses those concerns, saying drag shows that aren’t obscene won’t be affected.
“If you are not engaged in those types of obscene performances, you have nothing to worry about,” he said.
Williams also offered a hypothetical scenario for a different adult-oriented business in defense of the bill: “There’s nothing stopping a stripper from going in the parking lot and starting to dance in a sexualized manner. There’s absolutely nothing to stop it. And they can do a performance in the parking lot in the presence of minors, and be simulating sex acts, simulating masturbation, partial nudity. There’s no criminal liability in the state of Ohio currently for that.”
For Williams, HB 249 is a way to close these gaps in the law and protect kids from exposure to what he sees as inappropriate conduct.
“I mean, I even went to a Snoop Dogg performance where I thought the performers got to a level of performance that I thought was borderline obscene, and I didn’t feel comfortable if I would have taken a minor child there,” Williams said. “I want every performer that comes to the state of Ohio, if you’re going to perform in public, you need to do so with the idea that you cannot engage in obscene conduct, and if you are going to engage in obscene performances, you need to do so behind closed doors where no minors are present.”
This was the only non-drag-related example – that wasn’t a hypothetical – provided by Williams during our interview, despite Williams emphasizing that drag is not the focus of the bill. CityBeat asked Williams if he could offer more examples of musical performances in the state that raise a potential red flag.
“No, I don’t go and look at every concert.”
Cincinnati Pride
With pride comes parades, and with pride parades come drag performers. But, should queens and kings worry about performing for parade-goers young and old?
“Even if you are not kind of stopping to put on a show, you could argue that you are performing or entertaining when you are on a float at the Pride parade, engaging with the audience, all of that,” Thoreson told CityBeat. “So I do think that the law in that regard, both in terms of who is a performer, entertainer, and the broadly trans-inclusive nature of that provision – that casts a wide net, even if the provision is narrowed considerably, by the requirement that it be obscene or harmful to juveniles.”
Cincinnati Pride told CityBeat that, whether on a float or a Pride stage, performers at Cincinnati Pride are always required to dress and perform in ways that are suitable for the whole family.
“Nudity, things like that, are not present at all at the Cincinnati Pride festival, from our performers,” said Rio Henry, Cincinnati Pride’s director of communications. “It’s also very vague within the bill itself that it’s kind of hard to give you the specifics. When reading through the bill, I can tell you that absolutely none of our performances have ever hit on any of what they are claiming within the bill.”
While other states would suggest HB 249 has a narrow path to becoming law, CityBeat asked P.H. Dee what she plans to do if drag becomes more regulated.
“Drag queens have always been at the forefront of the LGBTQ+ movement,” she said. “So I envision a spirit of being galvanized. You know, we might have to take some time to lick our wounds, but I don’t think drag is going anywhere.”
This story is featured in CityBeat’s May 28 print edition.
Follow CityBeat’s staff news writer Madeline Fening on Instagram. Got a news tip? Email mfening@citybeat.com.
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This article appears in May 28 – Jun 10, 2025.