A Texas lawmaker who authored a bill that would restrict drag performances appears to have dressed in drag himself while a student.
A video, shared on Twitter and TikTok earlier this week appears to show Texas state Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Republican, skipping, running and dancing in a park while donning a black sequined dress and a red eye mask.
'The Virgin'
At the end of the roughly 90-second video — which plays over the song "Sexy Lady" by Javi Mula — the four participants are named, including Schatzline, whose character goes by "The Virgin."
"Nate Schatzline has made his entire personality attacking the LGBTQ community, trans especially children, and vowed to ban drag shows in Texas," the Twitter user, captioned the video. "Here is Nate... in drag."
Anti-Drag Bill
Last month, Schatzline seeked to amend Texas' Business and Commerce Code to 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 bill defines drag as when "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." The bills come in the wake of nationwide calls among some conservatives to restrict minors from attending such shows.
Schatzline Claims It was a 'Joke,' a 'Dare' He was Asked to Perform
In a tweet shared Tuesday, Schatzline, a first-term state representative and former pastor, appeared to confirm 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 tweeted.
Schatzline released a video response early Wednesday evening.
"The left wing is attacking me for some class project I did as a teenager where my buddies dared me to wear a dress," he said in the video. "But we're not going to let it distract us from the real message of what we're trying to get done here in the Texas Legislature, which is to ban sexually explicit drag shows and preserve the innocence of the next generation."
The video of the Texas lawmaker also comes days after an image surfaced on social media, appearing to show Tennessee Governor Bill Lee dressed in drag. Last month, footage emerged of another Republican, Rep. George Santos, appearing to show the lawmaker as drag queen "Kitara," while he was in Brazil.
