In 2023
On January 24, 2023, Arkansas passed a drag ban (SB43).
"Senate Bill 43 defines a 'drag performance' as at least one person 'exhibit[ing] a gender identity that is different from the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other accessories that are traditionally worn by members of and are meant to exaggerate the gender identity of the performer’s opposite sex' and singing, dancing, lip-syncing or performing in other ways in front of an audience."
— "Anti-drag legislation passes Arkansas Senate in 29-6 party-line vote": GOP senators say it will shield children; Democrats say it targets transgender Arkansans. Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate, January 24, 2023.
As was previously explained:
"According to the Republican leaders introducing SB43, the bill not only aims to define drag shows exclusively as adult entertainment, but goes as far to define drag as follows:
“Exhibits a gender identity that is different from the performer’s gender assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, or other accessories that are traditionally worn by members of and are meant to exaggerate the gender identity of the performer’s opposite sex.”
"...Bill SB43, although having critics internationally, appears likely to be signed into law by Arkansas’s own Sarah Huckabee Sanders- Donald Trump’s former Press Secretary and now Governor of the state. Other states like Ohio, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee have signaled their support of the Bill, with lawmakers there implying their intention to adopt it."
— Phaylen Fairchild, "Arkansas Introduces Heinous Anti-LGBTQ Bill Targeting Trans People," January 14, 2023.
In 2024
"A federal appeals court will hear arguments Thursday [April 11, 2024] over Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for minors, as the fight over the restrictions on transgender youths adopted by two dozen states moves closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Arkansas is appealing a federal judge’s ruling last year that struck down the state’s ban as unconstitutional, the first decision to overturn such a prohibition. The 2021 law would prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18.
The case is going before the full 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rather than a three-judge panel after it granted a request by Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin. The move could speed up the case’s march toward the U.S. Supreme Court, which has been asked to block similar laws in Kentucky and Tennessee."
— Federal appeals court hearing arguments on nation’s first ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Andrew DeMillo, AP, April 10, 2024
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