NC Senate passes anti-obscenity bill. Will it target drag shows?

Any actions done near a minor that the police deem to be obscene would carry harsher penalties in the future — possibly even prison time — under a bill the North Carolina Senate passed Monday.

Supporters and opponents alike had suggested in the past that it's intended to target drag shows. But on Monday the bill's lead GOP sponsor walked that back, to thanks from the other side of the aisle.

“It doesn’t change the definition of obscenity, it just increases the penalty," Sen. Buck Newton, R-Wilson, said.

Sen. Lisa Grafstein, a Raleigh Democrat, thanked him for clarifying that the bill would not expand the definition of obscenity to include drag shows, as Newton had implied last week.

“It’s been helpful to allay some fears that people had," said Grafstein, the only out LGBTQ member of the state Senate.

In the end the bill passed unanimously, 48-0.

"We all have the same goal of protecting children from access and exposure to materials that they're not ready for," Grafstein said.

It would raise the punishment for an obscene act in the presence of someone under 18 from a Class I felony to a Class H felony. Class I felonies are the lowest possible felony level in North Carolina. Per the state’s sentencing guidelines, they won’t lead to prison time for people with no prior criminal record. That’s not true of Class H felonies. Those higher level charges make prison an option, in addition to lesser options like probation or house arrest.

The legal question of what is or isn’t obscene is famously vague; in 1964 a Supreme Court justice defined it as “I know it when I see it.” North Carolina has a convoluted obscenity law that describes numerous actions that could be obscene, but also numerous other factors that could turn such behavior from obscene to acceptable.

Broadly speaking, however, something might be obscene if it’s sexual in nature — either real or pretend — and also “lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” It can also include certain non-sexual acts involving someone wearing a “revealing or bizarre costume.”

LGBTQ rights activists had previously criticized the measure as an attempt to vilify transgender people by wrongly connecting them with criminal activity.

On that front there's a separate bill, House Bill 673, that would ban at least some — and potential all — drag shows, by threatening felony charges. The bill itself is vaguely worded, and the bill’s sponsor previously declined to tell WRAL News whether he intended it to ban all drag shows, or if it should be up to local police to determine whether to arrest the participants.

Unlike the bill that passed the Senate Monday, however, House Bill 673 has yet to move forward in the legislature.

Also on Monday, state senators in the education committee advanced a bill with implications for transgender children.

The original language of the bill would’ve banned transgender students in middle and high school from playing sports as the gender they identify as. However, the committee watered it down somewhat Monday. The new version instead instructs the State Board of Education to come up with rules for what to do about “biological participation” rules for sports.

That change might not matter, however, depending on the fate of other legislation. Last month the state House passed a bill that would also ban transgender athletes from playing sports on the teams of the gender they identify as. That bill would go further than the Senate had originally considered, extending the ban to colleges as well.

North Carolina lawmakers are advancing other bills targeting gender or transgender issues this year. So are most other Republican-led states.

Some of the transgender-focused bills proposed at the General Assembly this year include:

• HB 808: Ban gender-affirming medical procedures for minors in North Carolina.
• HB 673: Criminalize at least some drag shows if held in public, as well as in private if there are minors present.
• HB 43: Ban gender dysphoria treatment in minors, using hormones or surgery.
• SB 560: Ban health care providers from performing "gender transition procedures” to minors, unless certain criteria are met.
• SB 641: Allow doctors, nurses, hospitals, health insurance companies and others to refuse to provide “any health care service which violates his, her, or its conscience."
• SB 639: Ban the prescribing or administering of puberty blockers to minors. It would also prohibit certain surgeries.
• SB 636: A wide-ranging bill that deals with high school athletics, including a ban on transgender athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
• SB 631: Ban transgender athletes from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
• SB 49: Require teachers to “out” transgender students to their parents against the students’ will. Would also create a uniform statewide system for parents to attempt to ban books, and would prohibit some instruction about LGBTQ issues.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.