The Indiana House of Representatives Committee on Courts and Criminal Code recently voted in favor of Senate Bill 326, which would modify how child sex abuse material is addressed in Indiana code, after amending it to include a ban on using public resources to organize or support an obscene performance. State Reps. Matt Pierce (D-Bloomington) and Mitch Gore (D-Indianapolis) opposed the amendment, as the former claimed such performances were not happening, and the latter added that it would likely discourage certain “constitutionally-protected” speech (Photo Credit: Indiana Senate).
“There have been no performances of this nature… but I think the intent is to have a chilling effect on performances people personally don’t like,” Gore said. “I don’t want to support an amendment that might have a chilling effect on people’s constitutionally protected speech, which I think is all this amendment could do.”
The Indiana Commons reached out to Gore about what performances people he was referring to but did not receive a response as of publication.
Indianapolis locals suggested online that the ban on obscene performances may have been directed towards drag shows.
Pierce also clarified that there may be publicly supported material that offends people but that it would fall short of the standards of obscenity in the amendment.
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The committee voted in favor of the amended bill.