Over the weekend, West met with LGBTQ advocates and residents in his district to talk about his recent vote in favor of SB 12. The bill, filed by Mineola Republican Sen. Bryan Hughes, would impose a $10,000 fine on business owners who host drag performances at their establishment in the presence of people under the age of 18.
West was the only Democrat to vote in favor of the bill on April 5, sending it to the House with the support of 19 Republican senators who also voted "yea."
SB 12 redefines sexually oriented performances to include “a male performer exhibiting as a female or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.”
West’s vote in support of the bill surprised his supporters and LGBTQ advocates who say it criminalizes drag performances. So they organized a meeting this weekend with West to discuss his vote.
Lee Daugherty, the owner of Oak Lawn bar Alexandre’s, told the Observer he didn’t have high expectations going into this community meeting with West. He thought West would just get a stern talking to from his voters and be sent on his way. He found that he was wrong. “I walked in and everyone’s yelling at each other, and I’m like ‘Hell, yeah, let’s go,'” Daugherty said.
The meeting was packed when Daugherty got there, he said, and everyone was furious. Daugherty was there to share his thoughts as a bar owner but started to feel like he didn’t have to say a thing after members of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas, the State Democratic Executive Committee and others began to grill West.“The vote I cast on SB 12 was a result of misinformation." – Sen. Royce West
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“He’s sitting up there going ‘Yeah, I’ve always been an ally,’” Daugherty recalled. “People were like ‘Listen, the war’s on right now and you’re making mistakes. The fight’s at the door right now and you’re leaving the door open.’”
It was contentious, Daugherty said. At one point, he thought West was going to walk out of the meeting. Eventually, Daugherty got brought into the conversation when the discussion turned to how SB 12 could affect bars. He asked West if he realized that banning drag shows would have a serious impact on the economy. Daugherty told him that doing so would blow a huge hole in tax revenue and employment in his district. “You’re going to kneecap an economy that sits right in the middle of your district that generates a lot of money for the state,” he said he told West. “You’re talking about unemploying people in your district all over this boogie man that’s been created.”
West asked Daugherty if he had read the bill. Daugherty said he had. Then the senator referenced a part of the bill that would ban different forms of sexual conduct from taking place in front of minors. Simulated or actual vaginal or anal sex, as well as masturbation are just some of the sexual acts defined in SB 12. It also defines sexual conduct as “the exhibition of a device designed and marketed as useful primarily for the sexual stimulation of male or female genitals.”
This is the stuff West wanted to draw people’s attention to. Sure, maybe the bill had bad implications for drag performers and the LGBTQ community at large. But it was about more than that to West. It was about the children, as he explained in a statement on social media on April 14, and as he tried to explain to the attendees of the community meeting the following day.
In his April 14 statement, West pleaded with people, asking them to see his side of things. “I am fully aware of the importance of drag to the LGBTQ Community. I am further aware that drag is not an inherently sexual performance the vast majority of the time,” West wrote in the statement. “However, Senate Bill 12 was not entirely about drag.”
He explained that the bill would make it a crime to perform sex acts in front of a minor, and that had nothing to do with drag.
“I could not in good conscience agree with allowing children to witness the activities in question when you look at exactly what is specified within the bill,” West wrote.
At the community meeting the next day, Daugherty asked West if he thought the sexual acts described in the bill were actually taking place at establishments like his. Daugherty said West then asked him if people had sex in bars in Texas. That’s when Daugherty told West that bars are bound by Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission lewdness laws and the state penal code, which prohibit nudity and sexual intercourse. “I was mortified that a 30-plus-year Democratic state senator had this notion that, at least for LGBTQ-dominant bars, that we were just sucking and fucking in there,” Daugherty said.
By the end of the meeting, West realized he’d been duped. He put out a statement two days later saying as much. “The vote I cast on SB 12 was a result of misinformation,” West wrote in an April 17 statement. He said some of the bill’s language is not based in fact. “The type of sexual performances articulated by Senate Bill 12 simply do not occur in front of children,” West wrote.
He added: “I encourage my colleagues in the House to talk directly to people in their districts before voting on this bill, because you will find that the type of sexual conduct described by SB12 is simply not happening at drag shows. Instead, this is another backhanded attack on the transgender community and the LGBTQ community at large.”
He said he’s stood with the LGBTQ community since his earliest days in office, and promised to work with them more when considering legislation.
“I tell my staff and law firm colleagues when they make a mistake, I don’t want excuses,” West wrote. “I just want it acknowledged and fixed, and I am big enough to admit that I made a mistake with this vote.”
Daugherty is happy West learned something and that he’s retracted his support for SB 12, but said he wishes the meeting had happened before his vote in favor of the bill. “I’m always happy for someone to learn something even if it’s maybe 30 years too late,” Daugherty said. “But what I’m not happy about is that the vote is still there and this bill is now listed as bipartisan.”
He’s worried that House Democrats may take West’s vote for SB 12 as the green light for them to support it. If it gets bipartisan support and is enacted, Daugherty worries other states will follow suit.
“That’s the game the right wing down there wants you to play,” Daugherty said. “That will be a monumental success for them to go around the nation and say ‘We’ve actually got Texas Democrats on board because they know this is wrong.’
“We’re playing their game and we shouldn’t be doing it.”
