The Gay bar shutdown effort has begun. Update 1 added.
With this effort the Gay bars will have to shut down Drag shows or register as an adult business.
UPDATE 1: It is about shutting down drag shows or Gay bars. The following new article makes it clear.
ttps://dallasexpress.com/local-bar-hosting-drag-show-for-kids-may-violate-ordinance
The original article.
This article appeared in the Dallas Express, dated 8/22/2022, a local newsletter for which I haven’t done a full investigation as to their political orientation.
https://dallasexpress.com/dallas-club-investigated-after-drag-show-for-kids
The article reports that Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has announced on Aug. 5th that he is investigating the drag show at the bar Mr. Misster titled, “Drag the Kids to Pride.”
The article stated, quoting a statement posted on Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s webpage that he was going to consider whether the bar Mr. Misster would be classified as a “Sexually Oriented Business” under the Business Code.
This is the statement made by Hegar on August 5, 2022.
Background Info
This is how the Dallas Express reported the event. I think this isn’t true. The police were there because of a right wing protest outside.
https://dallasexpress.com/police-allegedly-break-up-kid-friendly-drag-show/
The article seems to promote a local right-wing anti-drag show group and I believe the title is not true. So this leads me to believe Dallas Express is an anti-Gay publication. I am going to do further investigation to confirm this.
This is the report by the Dallas Voice.
https://dallasvoice.com/protesters-hit-the-strip/
The Dallas Voice didn’t fully understand who was pushing this. They focused on the Proud Boys groups, but didn’t report on a the rightwing group The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.” This is a reactionary group that is pre-modern in its outlook. It is global.
This is a typical article at TFP. “How Drag Queen Events Prepare Children for Satanism.”
https://www.tfp.org/how-drag-queen-events-prepare-children-for-satanism/
This is another report on what happened.
The Dallas event also got national right-wing publicity.
Is Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar planning an anti-Drag Show campaign?
So independent of Dallas Express reporting what do we know about it. So this post by Glenn Hegar mentions:
My office had already begun the process of investigating this specific event, as well as working to determine if the establishment is liable for the Sexually Oriented Business Fee (SOBF) under Chapter 102 of the Business Code. This process follows an established procedure used when an entity may be subject to the SOBF.
So it looks like he is going to see if Gay bars having drag shows will be classified as Sexually Oriented Businesses. This is concerning not just because of the additional fee that Hegar mentions, but a business classified as a Sexually Oriented Business is subject to all sorts of rules and regulations regarding such businesses. As I will show, the Cedar Spring strip would have to either ban drag shows or be shut down.
Texas Statutes
So it seems that a fee of $5 is collected by the State of Texas for each customer of a sexually oriented business.
Sec. 102.052. FEE BASED ON ADMISSIONS; RECORDS.
(a) A fee is imposed on a sexually oriented business in an amount equal to $5 for each entry by each customer admitted to the business.
(b) A sexually oriented business shall record daily in the manner required by the comptroller the number of customers admitted to the business. The business shall maintain the records for the period required by the comptroller and make the records available for inspection and audit on request by the comptroller.
(c) This section does not require a sexually oriented business to impose a fee on a customer of the business. A business has discretion to determine the manner in which the business derives the money required to pay the fee imposed under this section.A record has to be kept, so you wouldn’t be able to just walk into a Gay bar on the Cedar Spring strip, they would have to record you entering for the records and the bar would be charged $5. There would be just one entrance. It might be a cover or it might be added to the price of the drinks. Basically a Gay bar would find it hard to operate with this restriction.
Gay bars which are classified as sexually oriented businesses would have to post a sign in the rest rooms about human trafficking and a hot line number.
SUBCHAPTER C. NOTICE REQUIREMENTS ON PREMISES OF SEXUALLY ORIENTED BUSINESSES
Sec. 102.101. POSTING OF CERTAIN SIGN REQUIRED.
(a) A sexually oriented business shall post by the sink area in each restroom on the premises one sign that directs a victim of human trafficking to contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center. Except as provided by Subsection (c), the sign must be 11 inches by 17 inches in size.
(b) The attorney general by rule shall prescribe the design, content, and manner of display of the sign required by this section. The sign must:
(1) be in both English and Spanish;
(2) include the telephone number and Internet website of the National Human Trafficking Resource Center; and
(3) include the contact information for reporting suspicious activity to the Department of Public Safety.(c) The attorney general by rule may require the sign to:
(1) be in an additional language other than English or Spanish;
(2) be larger than 11 inches by 17 inches in size if the attorney general determines that a larger sign is appropriate; and
(3) include other information the attorney general considers necessary and appropriate.The above are the state rules.
Dallas Zoning Ordinances
Below are Dallas Rules in their 20 page application for an sexually oriented business license.
This is in Step 1 of the application.
You must pay a non-refundable fee of $90.00 for zoning verification and $1,198.00 for Survey Fees to ensure that the proposed Sexually Oriented Business will be in compliance with locational restrictions set forth by city ordinance.
There are locational restrictions for a sexually oriented business.
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/dallas/latest/dallas_tx/0-0-0-119255#JD_41A-13
This is the Dallas municipal code on the location of a sexually oriented business. Classification as a sexually oriented business would shutdown drag shows on the strip.
Notice Item b below. Sexually oriented businesses can’t be located within 1,000 feet of each other. So, even if there wasn’t any churches, schools, public parks, historical districts involved, hospital, etc. within 1,000 feet, you couldn’t have two Gay bars that held drag shows within 1,000 feet of each other. This would not only shutdown the Cedar Springs strip, but prevent the opening up of a Gay bar strip anywhere within the City of Dallas.
Looking at item (a)(5) below you can see the strip would be shutdown. There are residential neighborhoods on both sides of Cedar Springs strip.
SEC. 41A-13. LOCATION OF SEXUALLY ORIENTED BUSINESSES.
(a) A person commits an offense if he causes or permits the operation, establishment, substantial enlargement, or transfer of ownership or control of a sexually oriented business within 1,000 feet of:
(1) a church;
(2) a public or private elementary or secondary school;
(3) a boundary of a residential or historic district as defined in this chapter;
(4) a public park;
(5) the property line of a lot devoted to a residential use as defined in this chapter;
(6) a hospital; or
(7) a child-care facility.
(b) A person commits an offense if he causes or permits the operation, establishment, substantial enlargement, or transfer of ownership or control of a sexually oriented business within 1,000 feet of another sexually oriented business.
(c) A person commits an offense if he causes or permits the operation, establishment, or maintenance of more than one sexually oriented business in the same building, structure, or portion of a building or structure, or the increase of floor area of any sexually oriented business in any building, structure, or portion of a building or structure containing another sexually oriented business.
(d) For the purposes of Subsection (a), measurement must be made in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the nearest portion of the building or structure used as a part of the premises where a sexually oriented business is conducted, to the nearest property line of the premises of a church, public or private elementary or secondary school, hospital, or child-care facility or to the nearest boundary of an affected public park, residential district, historic district, or residential lot.
(e) For purposes of Subsection (b) of this section, the distance between any two sexually oriented businesses must be measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the closest exterior wall of the structure in which each business is located.
Shutting down drag shows, maybe the bars also.
Would they be able to apply a classification of being a sexually oriented business retroactively? I don’t know.
What we need to understand is that at the very least they are coming to shutdown all the drag shows, because if the Gay bars didn’t stop the drag shows, the Gay bars would effectively be shutdown.
Given that drag shows are part of the entertainment offered by Gay bars to attract some of their business, it would negatively impact Gay bars also in reducing the number of customers, which are nationally already shutting down.
Finally, I think this action regarding drag shows is just a first step in going after the Gay bars. I think these actions against drag shows will be just one part of a larger campaign to shut down Gay bars.
UPDATE1: Next day issue of Dallas Express makes it clear that the anti-drag queen movement is about shutting down either drag queen shows or bars.
https://dallasexpress.com/local-bar-hosting-drag-show-for-kids-may-violate-ordinance/
Please at least share, so I can continue to get the word out.
This is the link to the petition to get a Human Rights Commission at Change.org https://chng.it/XrsMZ9P8cR Please sign and share. With groups and individuals like these in Dallas we need a human rights commission.
