WTF Is Ohio’s Anti-Drag Show Bill That Critics Worry Could Criminalize Wearing a Sports Bra in Public

Ohio lawmakers are considering an anti-trans “drag ban” bill that would heavily restrict cabaret performers across the state, potentially block trans people from using gendered spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms, and all but vanish drag shows from anywhere but adult-only venues. Some critics say the bill’s reach could get even more insane, arguing its vague language could mean women are criminalized for wearing sports or swimsuits in public. 

HB 249—also called the “Indecent Exposure Modernization Act”—passed the GOP-dominated House in March in a 63-32 vote. Like any GOP-backed anti-trans bill, it claims to protect minors by cracking down on so-called “indecency,” including making public drag performances illegal.

The bill includes sweeping anti-LGBTQ+ language, like a provision banning performers from “exhibit[ing] a gender identity that is different from [their] gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts, or other physical markers.” This would effectively function as a “drag ban,” and could penalize anyone performing in front of a minor. If the bill is signed into law, violations could carry penalties ranging from a first-degree misdemeanor to a felony. 

The legislation was introduced by State Reps. Angela King (R)‚—who once teamed up with neo-Nazi “Aryan White Nationalists” to stage a counter-protest against her town’s Pride—and Josh Williams (R), who has reportedly described trans people as “perverts” while discussing the bill. An identical bill was introduced (though it failed in the House committee) in 2023, after a pastor complained on Facebook that his wife saw a trans woman changing in the women’s locker room of their local YMCA. This, he said, didn’t align with the group’s “Christian principles.” At the time, the Y responded, “Let it be known that, under no circumstances will we investigate an individual’s birth gender identity and then, assign individuals to locker rooms. That would be counter to the law.” 

The bill has drawn renewed attention after Dan Kobil, a constitutional law professor at Capital University Law School, warned in an op-ed for The Columbia Dispatch that its implications could extend far beyond drag shows and trans people. Because the bill expands the definition of “public indecency”—replacing “private parts” with “private area”—Kobil argues it could classify female breasts as indecent even when covered by an undergarment. Kobil writes:

And it is not just drag shows that are placed at risk by these politicians. In its puritanical zeal to root out new forms of “indecency,” the legislation even bans sports bras and other kinds of women’s clothing when worn in “physical proximity” to those who are not members of the woman’s household.

On Twitter, Rep. King called Kobil’s op-ed “the peak of fear mongering” and “nothing but perversion,” accusing the professor of “twisting a bill that aims to protect the innocence of children into something it’s not.” Totally! 

in Ohio they’re trying to ban drag outside of “adult cabarets, and once again, every time these losers try to police gender they inevitably end up writing a law that’s like “oopsies, we also banned being a woman in public.”

www.dispatch.com/story/opinio…

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— Nightmare Mommy, Kink Sommelier (semper infidelis) (@cuntleyjune.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 10:17 PM

Meanwhile, the ACLU of Ohio called the legislation “vague, overbroad, and nonsensical,” warning that it could “easily contorted, twisted, and misapplied.” “Indecent exposure is already illegal under existing Ohio law,” the organization wrote in a statement. “There is no need to ‘modernize’ the law.” 

The bill is currently being considered in a judiciary committee at the Senate. If it passes—which could be likely given the GOP majority in both chambers—it will head to Gov. Mike DeWine, who’s made it his duty to transform Ohio into the “place where women won’t want to be.” 

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