MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Businesses up and down Middletown's Central Avenue have been preparing for the June 21 Pride festival for weeks.
"Everybody welcome" and "You're safe here" stickers line windows along the block.
Inside West Central Wine & Bar, bartender Joshua Elswick said the festival is one of their busiest days of the year.
"Pride is a great way for people to get out ... a lot of people walking around town, a lot of small businesses being supported," he said.
Elswick said he was surprised to learn that photographs taken at the 2023 Middletown festival had become a clarion call for conservatives in the state legislature attempting to ban drag performances in public places with HB 245.
"I think it's just people that are trying to step on somebody for having a thing," Elswick said.
The photos, taken by former state Rep. Candice Keller, have been used in testimony to the legislature about the bill, and PRIDE Middletown took to Facebook Tuesday to rebuke written testimony submitted by Butler County Auditor Nancy Nix.
Nix declined an interview about her testimony Tuesday, but stood by the remarks where she called the drag performances "dark, depraved, and immoral."
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The auditor wrote she has always tried to be open to other lifestyles and that "People should be free to be themselves and love whom they want to love," but she called the 2023 drag show "obscene."
"Adults, dressed as exaggerated street hookers, were splayed on their backs, spread eagle," she wrote.
In a Facebook post, PRIDE Middletown pushed back against Nix's description of the pride festival saying Nix didn't see the display herself, and called the photos intentionally misleading "freeze frames" of gymnastics moves like cartwheels "to falsely make it appear they were posing in a sexual manner when no such activities actually occurred."
The post went on to say, "It is a shame that otherwise educated individuals such as Ms. Nix were taken in by the intentional manipulation of photographs by this person to misrepresent and slander a wholesome family-oriented festival in our community."
Nix said she wanted to make it clear that, as an elected official, her auditor's office treats everyone equally.
University of Cincinnati Political Science Professor David Niven said the bill would face an uphill legal battle if passed no matter one's opinion of drag performances.
"It's really broadly written," Niven said.
Niven said curtailing constitutionally protected speech or performances in public places is a very high bar requiring proof of significant harm.
"Legislators are going to be in a challenging position in a courtroom if this bill were to pass to explain, for example, how a public performance of Mrs. Doubtfire is harmful to society," he said.
Butler County's Democratic Party Chair weighed in on the testimony Tuesday evening as well in a statement:
"I am disappointed but not surprised that our Republican county auditor succumbed to partisan pressure to testify in support of this bill. Incidentally, Butler County’s taxpayer base certainly includes members of the LGBTQ+ community who deserve to be treated fairly.
Regarding House Bill 245, it is beyond shameful that Ohio Republicans are attempting to criminalize public drag performances, which often happen at PRIDE celebrations, in the latest attack on the LGBTQ+ community. In a society that values free expression, a bill criminalizing gender diverse performances seems in direct conflict with the First Amendment. This bill is an unnecessary overreach by legislative extremists who continue to attack marginalized folks in order to score political points."
At the end of its Facebook post, PRIDE Middletown invited Nix to join the 2024 Pride festival.
Nix said she was not interested in attending.
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