Anti-LGBTQ+ activists clash with inclusive values in a small Texas town

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• Geoff Bennett:

  In Texas, LGBTQ rights are under attack everywhere from the halls of the Capitol to the streets of small towns.

  On Friday, Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Republican lawmakers have also targeted drag performers.

  Laura Barron-Lopez is back with her report from one Texas town where a fight over drag has exposed deep divisions.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Once a month in Taylor, Texas, LGBTQ families and supporters gather to make art, watch movies, and show off their talents. It is a space for members of the Taylor Pride group to connect. But wherever they go, the Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance follows.

• Man:

  I know you know that, and you suppress that truth and unrighteousness.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Known here as TAMA, the group of orthodox Christian churches protest these events, in their words, to evangelize. And so they have every month, says Denise Rodgers, who founded Taylor Pride in 2020.

• Denise Rodgers, Taylor Pride:

  We are just trying to exist. And they show up wherever we are every time. Literally just children doing crafts and art and having fun and existing, and they still show up to protest just their existence and them gathering.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Now veterans and other groups stand guard outside the events. And the Taylor police are stationed nearby to keep the peace.

• Denise Rodgers:

  Taylor is changing in a big way. It is easy right now to say that Taylor Pride is part of the problem, because I think that we are probably the most noticeable change right now.

• Jeff Ripple, Taylor Area Ministerial Alliance:

  Taylor is a typical rural community in a lot of ways, but it has changed a lot, I would say, recently.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Jeff Ripple is a pastor at the Christ Fellowship Church and a TAMA member, unapologetic about his anti-LGBTQ beliefs.

  Shouldn't those kids have a place to be able to be who they are and to express their identity?

• Jeff Ripple:

  I'm not saying they should not. When I go to an event, whether it is the Pride event in June or whether it's to the library, I'm not out there because I hate anybody. I'm out there because I actually love them.

  And the reason I'm out there, in love, is because I actually believe what the Scripture says, that those lifestyles are opposed to God, they are deemed sinful by God, and those who practice those lifestyles will experience hell one day.

  I mean, I believe that.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Both Ripple and Rodgers have put down roots in this railroad town, home to 17,000 people. It is growing rapidly, with the construction of a major Samsung plant and rising costs in nearby Austin driving families out of the city, families like Alecia Marcum's.

  She left Austin for Taylor in 2014 and earlier this year opened a restaurant. She believes most of the community supports Taylor's LGBTQ residents.

• Alecia Marcum, Taylor Resident:

  I think that we should be all-inclusive here. As a business owner here, my first and foremost mission is to serve the community in every sense of the word. And that means all of the community.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Up the road, and Angelica Salazar runs a hot dog stand with her husband. She was born and raised in Taylor and worries some newcomers are forcing the city too far left.

  So, what do you think about the LGBTQ community in Taylor?

• Angelica Salazar, Taylor Resident:

  They're very progressive. I love their commitment.

  The only thing is, I don't want to be pushed onto people that are not in that lifestyle.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Some Taylor residents point to a single event when they describe the divisions here, the town Christmas parade, which has come down this street for decades. That, they say, is what put Taylor on the front line of the war on LGBTQ rights.

  In 2021, for the first time, the line of Christmas floats on Main Street, including one from Taylor Pride, which carried drag queens. One of the performers was Felicia Enspire.

• Felicia Enspire, Drag Performer:

  We were cheered and clapped for the entire parade. I felt like everyone enjoyed it. We didn't hear any kind of backlash at all, until the following year, and it's like it exploded all over Facebook out of nowhere.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  That explosion happened in the months leading up to the 2022 Christmas parade.

  TAMA which put on the parade with the city, didn't want any float with drag queens.

• Jeff Ripple:

  Drag queens in a Christmas float is not consistent with Christianity as we believe it. And so, last year, in the entry forms, we simply made a notation that said all entries must conform with traditional family and biblical values.

  And that created a firestorm.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Residents like Angelica Salazar agreed with the exclusion of drag performers from the parade.

• Angelica Salazar:

  I would say keep the drag queens out of it because I equate drag queens with strippers, and keep it age-appropriate. Go ahead, have your float like everybody else has her float, but keep the drag queens out of it.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  The city and Mayor Brandt Rydell stepped in when they found out TAMA changed the rules to exclude Taylor Pride.

  Brandt Rydell, Mayor of Taylor, Texas: given that we're a community that is very open and welcome, embracing — in fact, our parade at its best includes people from throughout the community — we were put into a difficult situation there to make a call on how we're going to handle the parade.

  So we did not want to disrupt their parade, but, then again, we did not want to be discriminatory and excluding those who wanted to participate in the parade as they had in the past.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  So, last year, there were two back-to-back parades, one sponsored by the city that included Taylor Pride's float with drag queens and one sponsored by TAMA that didn't.

  It was a short-term local solution, as attacks on drag performers have increased fueled by Republicans on the national stage.

  Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: Florida is where woke goes to die!

  (CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA):

  We have had enough of drag queens gyrating in front of children.

• Rep. Mat Gaetz (R-FL):

  How much taxpayer money should go to fund drag queen story hours on military bases?

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  The agenda has taken hold in Texas.

• Brigitte Bandit, Drag Performer:

  My name is Brigitte Bandit, and I'm speaking in opposition to S.B.12.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Where a ban on drag performances in front of kids was among the dozens of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced by Republicans this session.

• State Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-TX):

  Drag shows are sexually explicit and expose children to issues of sexuality and identity that should be reserved for adults.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Opponents a drag is an art form, not overtly sexual, and that parents should decide what's appropriate for their kids.

  Ultimately, the explicit reference to drag was removed from the legislation due to fear of legal challenges.

• Felicia Enspire:

  Even though it doesn't specifically say drag anymore, it's still going to be a tool that can be used to target drag queens and the LGBT community as a whole. These people can try to get us to go back into our closets and tone ourselves down or act and behave differently than what they consider to be normal and everything, but queer people have been around since the beginning of humankind, and we're not going anywhere.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Last month, Taylor officials approved the city's first ever policy for events like parades. It says: "Events co-sponsored by the city must align with Taylor's mission and vision," which means they will effectively be open to everyone.

  So what do you think a Christmas parade in 2023 will look like?

• Brandt Rydell :

  I think the city will have a Christmas parade, and we will be inclusive of all groups that want to participate. And we would love for TAMA to be involved in that as well.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  But that may be wishful thinking.

• Jeff Ripple:

  I would like to see a TAMA parade with biblical values. What the city does apart from that is their business.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  But Denise Rodgers says what's happening in Taylor and across Texas is about more than parades.

• Denise Rodgers:

  It's really about eradicating an entire class of people.

• PROTESTER:

  You should all be in jail.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  And she says the rising anti-LGBTQ efforts in red states across the country are being acutely felt by LGBTQ youth.

• Denise Rodgers:

  They're feeling less supported. They're feeling that there's less resources. And we worry about that.

  The kind of help they're reaching out for is — we have a lot of scared youth, for sure.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Rodgers says that's why Taylor Pride won't stop holding events.

• Woman:

  Good job, buddy.

• Laura Barron-Lopez:

  Even as people challenging their very existence stand at the door.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Laura Barron-Lopez in Taylor, Texas.