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Author Of Texas' Anti-Drag Bill Speaks Out After Video Of Him In Drag Surfaces
Nate Schatzline called video of him running around dressed like a woman 'a joke' for a 'theatre project.'
Republican Texas Representative Nate Schatzline, who authored the state's anti-drag bill, was called out for his hypocrisy after a video of him resurfaced that allegedly featured him as a teenager in drag.
Schatzline, a first-term State Representative and former pastor, spoke out in response to the resurfaced video circulating on social media and urged constituents to help "preserve the innocence of the next generation."
The vintage clip showed Schatzline wearing a black sequined dress and red mask and prancing around a public park with three other male friends who were also in drag to the song “Sexy Lady” by Javi Mula.
He later claimed his friends dared him to wear a dress as part of a "class project."
Twitter user Michelle–a.k.a. @LivingBlueTX–posted the clip of the anti-drag advocate as a teenager frolicking in a dress, which you can see here.
\u201cNate Schatzline has made his entire personality attacking the LGBTQ community, trans especially children, and vowed to ban drag shows in Texas. \n\nHere is Nate\u2026 in drag. #txlege #iToldYouSo\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
Schatzline introduced his partisan House Bill 1266 in January, which sought to amend Texas’ Business and Commerce Code and redefine "drag performance" and “authorizes on-premises consumption of alcoholic beverages” as a "sexually oriented business."
“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.”
“A nightclub, bar, restaurant, or other commercial enterprise that provides for an audience of two or more individuals a drag performance.”
Critics of the bill also argue such measures with broad language are discriminatory and could possibly violate First Amendment laws.
Actions spoke louder than words when Twitter users reached out to Schatzline and asked if the person in the video was him.
They were subsequently blocked.
\u201c@LivingBlueTX I just asked if it was him and he blocked me. That confirms it that it was him.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX We're not going crazy Nate, u are. That is why you keep deleting all ur responses to re-word them. We are all totally fine with you doing drag, cause there is nothing explicitly predatory about it. YOU are the one that keeps connecting drag to child predators. & thats a you issue\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX oof, blocked me Nate? Are conservatives the snow flakes now? How can be a representative of people if you run away from any good faith discussion on issues you take personal offense to? I think there's a word for people who want to just rule w/out considering their people..\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
"Y’all really going crazy over me wearing a dress as a joke back in school for a theatre project?" he tweeted.
"Yah, that’s not a sexually explicit drag show… lol y’all will twist ANYTHING. "
"Michelle, please find something better to do than look up old videos from when people were in school."
Schatzline also posted a video calling out the left-wing media for twisting information and urged Texas to focus on the task at hand in the state legislature, which is to "ban sexually explicit drag shows."
\u201cA response to media posting a class project from my teenage years. Sometimes you just gotta laugh \ud83d\ude02\n\nMedia wants to distract us from adults who act in sexually suggestive ways in front of kids. We\u2019re not backing down against those that want to rob a child\u2019s innocence! #txlege\u201d— Nate Schatzline (@Nate Schatzline) 1677711821
People had some thoughts.
\u201c@NateSchatzline\u201d— Nate Schatzline (@Nate Schatzline) 1677711821
\u201c@NateSchatzline Yeah, I remember all those school assignments growing up in Texas. Teachers forcing boys to prance around in makeup and dresses, filming us while on display for even younger kids in public places. It was a real drag.\u201d— Nate Schatzline (@Nate Schatzline) 1677711821
\u201c@NateSchatzline And FYI, it\u2019s NOT the \u201cleft wing news media\u201d to blame. Someone close to you, who knows your true character, wanted the people of Texas to know this about you. Your hypocrisy. The realization that people you thought liked you, turned on you, must hurt. Own this. Be brave.\u201d— Nate Schatzline (@Nate Schatzline) 1677711821
\u201c@NateSchatzline Like this place that has a kid's section?\u201d— Nate Schatzline (@Nate Schatzline) 1677711821
When a Twitter user chalked up his stunt to merely being a joke, Michelle pointed out that according to his bill, Schatzline could be legally in violation.
\u201c@BartholicTasha @NateSchatzline Not according to his bill\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@Patschatz @NateSchatzline He would have broken his own proposed law\u201d— Nate Schatzline (@Nate Schatzline) 1677711821
Critics noted that for someone so vehemently opposed to drag, his attempt at demonstrating self-expression by comfortably skipping around in a dress came naturally to him.
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX IDK Nate.. you look pretty cozy in that dress.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX It's drag based on the actual definition of your bill. You're trying to outlaw your own performance, you miserable hypocrite.\n\nYou really should just live your authentic life. No one will judge you, at least no one whose opinion matters. It's OK, Nate.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX hy\u00b7poc\u00b7ri\u00b7sy\n/h\u0259\u02c8p\u00e4kr\u0259s\u0113/\n\nnoun\nthe practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX What a coincidence! family friendly drag shows aren\u2019t sexually explicit either.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
Others weighed in with their thoughts on the conservative Congressman's anti-drag mission and moral character.
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX Hey so does your bill enforce stricter dress codes for waitresses at Hooters and other restaurants that sexualize women? I really hope your bill includes those kinds of regulations that Republicans seem to love now, expanding government power and reach is the GOP way!\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX Sexually explicit entertainment in front of kids is already illegal, under current laws. That you are passing a bill that targets Drag specifically shows your anti-LGBTQ bigotry. Based on the data, if you really want to protect kids you wouldn\u2019t allow them near Priests.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX Ps, @NateSchatzline you need to change your Twitter bio to \u201cfighting for straight & cisgender families only\u201d cause you are absolutely not fighting for the vast majority of TX families who proudly support their LGBTQ+ family members.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX Just because you're mediocre at everything else doesn't mean you need to stoke culture war flames as a republican just to make a name for yourself. It's pathetic.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX Based on your face, your desire for control over other people's bodies and the fact that you were a former pastor, I'm much more worried about you being around children than a drag queen.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX Mighty Christian of you to \u201cjoke\u201d about people\u2019s lived experience. Bravo \ud83d\ude4c , I guess.\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
\u201c@NateSchatzline @LivingBlueTX otherwise performs before an audience for entertainment.\n\nBased upon your definition in YOUR bill, that would have been classified as a "drag performance."\n\nBut, we get it... you're a Republican, that means:\n1) don't tell you what to do\n2) you can tell others what to do\n\n2/2\u201d— Michelle (@Michelle) 1677554952
Footage of Schatzline's early drag performance came to light after a different video allegedly featuring drag-banning Tennessee Governor Bill Lee dressed in drag surfaced on Reddit.
The photo posted by an anonymous user on the platform was from a 1977 yearbook, and it purportedly featured the future Tennessee Governor dressed in a short-skirted cheerleader's uniform, a pearl necklace, and a wig.
Its authenticity remains unverified, but when presented with the photo, he skirted around the question of whether or not the high schooler dressed as a woman was him.
Instead, the Republican Governor criticized comparisons between the photo in question and the performances targeted in his anti-drag measure as being "ridiculous," adding:
“Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject.”
Tennessee became the first state to enact legislation criminalizing “adult cabaret performances” in public spaces, and it specified such acts to include “male or female impersonators" as being “harmful to minors."
Tennessee Republican State Senator Jack Johnson–who sponsored the bill–maintained it was not anti-drag but "pro-child."
Introduced by Lee, the bill was passed by the state senate along party lines. Lee reaffirmed that he plans to sign it.
Schatzline's video also comes a month after another photo surfaced online alleged to be of beleaguered Republican New York Representative George Santos in drag.
In response to the headline, the known serial liar told reporters at the time:
“No, I was not a drag queen in Brazil, guys."
"I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life.”