Kentucky bill would prohibit businesses that host drag performances from being near schools, residences

COVINGTON, Ky. — Covington officers are talking out towards a invoice requiring all “adult-oriented” companies to be greater than 1,000 ft away from any residence, park, faculty, church, library or leisure facility.

Based on Senate Invoice 115, any institution that hosts drag performances could be thought of an “adult-oriented” enterprise. Drag performances are outlined within the invoice as performances the place somebody sings, lip-syncs, dances or reads earlier than an viewers “whereas exhibiting a gender expression that’s inconsistent with the organic intercourse formally acknowledged on the performer’s authentic beginning certificates.”

Covington hosts and sponsors NKY Delight yearly, whereas locations like Braxton Brewing Co., Covington Yard and Lodge Covington host drag exhibits or related occasions. If SB 115 grew to become regulation, any already-established adult-oriented companies could be required to “conform to the necessities” by July 2025.

“I can’t start to explain how wrong-headed and ill-advised this laws is, and the way a lot of an overreach it’s,” Covington Mayor Joe Meyer mentioned in a press release. “The courts have constantly restricted authorities’s authority to manage expression corresponding to this.”

The invoice states that adult-oriented companies are related to “hostile secondary results” like human trafficking, prostitution, drug trafficking and “detrimental impacts on surrounding properties and their worth.”

“Anyone who associates the Delight Parade and drag exhibits with crime, city blight, and depressed property values has clearly by no means attended both the parade or a present in Covington,” mentioned Dan Hassert, Covington’s communications director. “These are enjoyable and entertaining and epitomize the quirky persona of The Cov, which by the way in which has paid off very handsomely in our skill to draw companies, traders, expertise, and guests.”

One of many invoice’s sponsors is state Sen. Gex Williams, who represents components of Boone and Kenton counties, in addition to Franklin, Gallatin, Carroll and Owen counties. WCPO has reached out to Williams for remark however has not heard again.

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