A federal appeals court ruling has reaffirmed that Texas can enforce a 2023 law, to restrict some public drag shows.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has cleared the way for Texas's Senate Bill 12, often called the 'drag ban,' to take effect on March 18, after reversing a lower court's decision that found the law unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. The law targets 'sexually oriented performances' on public property or in front of minors.
Challenges to the law began in September 2023, when a federal district court temporarily blocked the law, agreeing with plaintiffs that it violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
On Nov. 6, 2025, a 5th Circuit three-judge vacated the injunction, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to prove they would be directly harmed by the law, suggesting not all drag performances are 'sexually explicit'.
A request for a rehearing was denied on Feb. 25, allowing the law to proceed, though the legal battle continues.
With the law going into effect, drag performers are prohibited from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children and any business hosting such performances or they could be hit with a Class A misdemeanor and $10,000 fine.
According to SB 12 criteria, a performance to be sexually oriented if the performer is nude or engages in sexual conduct, which could include “actual contact or simulated contact” between one person and another person’s “buttocks, breast, or any part of the genitals.”
The panel did find that a drag production company’s described performances “arguably” are sexually explicit, though the ruling doesn’t specifically say which actions qualify.