NBC News: Video Appears to Show Texas Drag Bill Author Dressed in Drag

NBC News is reporting that Texas state Rep. Nate Schatzline, who authored a bill that would restrict drag performances, appears to have dressed in drag himself while a student.

The video that surfaced on Twitter and TikTok this week shows a group of four dressed in costumes, skipping, running and dancing in a park. Rep. Schatzline is allegedly dressed in a black sequined dress and a red eye mask. 

At the end of the video, which includes the song “Sexy Lady” by Javi Mula, the four people are named, including Schatzline, whose character is called “The Virgin.”

“Nate Schatzline has made his entire personality attacking the LGBTQ community, trans especially children, and vowed to ban drag shows in Texas,” said the Twitter user.

In a tweet responding to the post, Schatzline implicitly confirmed his participation in the video. “Y’all really going crazy over me wearing a dress as a joke back in school for a theatre project? Yah, that’s not a sexually explicit drag show… lol y’all will twist ANYTHING,” he wrote.

The proposed law, HB 1266, would define a venue that hosts a “drag performance” and “authorizes on-premises consumption of alcoholic beverages” as a “sexually oriented business.” Such businesses, according to the state code, “may not allow an individual younger than 18 years of age to enter the premises of the business.” 

The legislation defines a drag performance as “a performance in which a performer exhibits a gender identity that is different than the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers and sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment.” It also states that sexually oriented businesses can be categorized as “a nightclub, bar, restaurant, or other commercial enterprise that provides for an audience of two or more individuals a drag performance.”

This is a developing story.