Boy's drag routine prompts Republican to seek new rules on child exploitation
Source: The Guardian
Ohio lawmaker proposes expanding child endangerment laws after clip of nine-year-old dancing appears on fringe website
Amanda Holpuch
Sun 21 Apr 2019 07.00 BST Last modified on Sun 21 Apr 2019 07.02 BST
An Ohio Republican has proposed legislation to change state child exploitation law, in response to a nine-year-old boy’s drag performance at a local bar which sparked an online furor after video was published by a fringe conservative website.
The video shows the boy, who performs as Miss Mae Hem, in a pink leotard doing cartwheels, splits and a classic drag move called a death drop, which involves falling down.
The state representative Tim Schaffer’s bill would expand the definition of child endangering to stop businesses with liquor licenses holding performances in which a “child simulates sexual activity”.
Schaffer said in a statement he was introducing the bill because of a video featuring Miss Mae Hem, which he said showed the child performing a “provocative sexually explicit dance routine”.
In the video, which runs about four minutes, Miss Mae Hem performs dance moves common to children’s dance classes as well as vogueing, a traditional drag dance style that is not inherently sexual. The performer also collects money from a cheering audience.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/apr/20/ohio-boy-drag-queen-law-children
= new reply since forum marked as read
Drinking nothing stronger than 7-up, of course, and perhaps neighborhood bars were not the coarse nature you might be more familiar with today.
Of course, those bars that are so coarse that children have no place, even quietly sipping a soft drink, are not the kind of place I'd want to frequent as an adult either. And, in fact, I generally DON'T.
BTW, most states do NOT prohibit children in bars TODAY as long as they are not drinking alcohol and are accompanied by an adult. This based on a quick perusal of state laws across the country. Perhaps there are a few states that restrict further but that did not appear to be the case.
I could see issues with children PERFORMING in bars, however, which would likely make me uncomfortable, although I'd note that historically some of our best jazz performers got their start playing in bands in bars while still children). But simply being there is generally not a legal issue.
Perhaps if this RWer is so concerned about sexualizing children via performance, he'd focus a bit on this:
France Bans Children's Beauty Contest to Curb Sexualization
