Montana has banned drag queen story hour.
According to a report from Breitbart News, Republican Governor Greg Gianforte signed a bill on Monday that prevents children from attending “sexually oriented shows.”
From Breitbart News:
The law further defines Drag Queen Story Hour as “an event hosted by a drag queen or drag king who reads children’s books and engages in other learning activities with minor children present.”
Republicans have long maintained drag shows targeted at children expose minors to sexually mature content that is inappropriate for young ages. LGBTQ advocates decried the law as an attack on their community.
“Montana’s new law criminalizing freedom of expression and art should be a red flag for everyone. The moral panic of drag has too long been a scapegoat for transmisogyny and overall transphobia in this country,” Jonathan Hamilt, the executive director of Drag Story Hour, told CNN.
“Uncle Sam needs a makeover and our drag community is here to create one,” Hamilt added.
Montana also recently banned Chinese social media app TikTok.
“The Chinese Communist Party using TikTok to spy on Americans, violate their privacy, and collect their personal, private, and sensitive information is well-documented,” Gianforte said.
“Today, Montana takes the most decisive action of any state to protect Montanans’ private data and sensitive personal information from being harvested by the Chinese Communist Party,” the governor added.
In response, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwette said in a statement that Gianforte “has signed a bill that infringes on the First Amendment rights of the people of Montana by unlawfully banning TikTok, a platform that empowers hundreds of thousands of people across the state.”
“We want to reassure Montanans that they can continue using TikTok to express themselves, earn a living, and find community as we continue working to defend the rights of our users inside and outside Montana,” she said.
More over at Breitbart News:
Montana has become the first state in the union to ban drag queen story hour for children from public schools and libraries. https://t.co/WIdaTEjqmr
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 25, 2023