Domestic Glance
A federal judge has, for a second time, struck down a Texas state law banning drag performances in settings where children may be present.
In a ruling issued on Tuesday, US district judge David Hittner said Texas cannot enforce its drag show ban. He said that the measure improperly restricts speech and violates the first amendment of the US constitution.
The Texas ban, known as Senate bill 12, was passed in March 2023 and bans drag performers from dancing suggestively or wearing certain prosthetics on public property or in front of children, or “sexually-oriented performance” presented on the premises in the presence of an individual younger than 18 years of age.
Advocacy groups sued the state after the bill’s passage, arguing the ban on “sexually oriented performance” infringed on constitutional rights. Texas’s move was just one across several states in 2023, driven by a right-wing backlash to increasing queer and transgender rights and equality. Hittner initially declared the ban unconstitutional in September 2023, but it was unblocked by the 5th US circuit court of appeals in 2025, which returned the case to the judge.
That allowed Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is locked in a race for a US Senate seat against Democrat James Talarico, to resume enforcing the law earlier this year.
Dolly Parton, the “Queen of Country" singing icon with a personality as bold as her signature blond coif and rhinestone-encrusted outfits has died. She was 80 years old.
In a rare kind of attack, a bear killed a man in Crystal, New Mexico, on Thursday, local police said.
A 13-year-old girl in Michigan survived being shot four times in a shooting spree that left six people dead – including the suspected attacker – and called emergency help herself shortly before investigators identified the gunman, according to a state police official and her family.
