On Thursday, the House State Affairs Committee recommended passage of a bill that claims to ban sexually explicit public performances, a bill that was drafted to try to end public drag shows often associated with gay pride festivals.
As is becoming increasingly predictable for bills authored by the Idaho Family Policy Council, a Christian nationalist organization that argues the country should be run by Old Testament law, the bill is drafted so that it bans a wide swath of activity that has nothing to do with the announced intention of banning explicit performances in public.
It defines proscribed sexual conduct to include: “Sexually provocative dances or gestures performed with accessories that exaggerate male or female primary or secondary sexual characteristics.” If you understand what those terms mean, you begin to see the staggering scope of public performances that fall within the bill’s crosshairs.
