Megan Hunt’s Proposed Amendment Would Ban Bible Camp

“This amendment obviously won’t pass, and I would withdraw it if it had the votes to pass,” Nebraska Senator Megan Hunt told The Advocate. “It’s just a device to make a point.” The first openly queer member of Nebraska legislature, she has proposed many such amendments to bills in the past.  A similarly worded amendment she wrote in January would have instituted a $10,000 fine on anyone who sold M&M’s to anyone under the age of 19 without explicitly outlining the candy mascots’ assigned sex at birth.

This proposed amendment in particular would highlight the hypocrisy of Senator Dave Murman’s bill that would prevent anyone from hosting a “performance by someone who uses clothing, makeup, or other physical markers to demonstrate a gender identity that is different from what they were born with, as well as singing, lip-synching, dancing, or performing for entertainment,” for anyone under 19 years of age.

He claims that, based on videos he has seen of drag performances, he is able to judge them as being inappropriate for children. He is not the only Republican who is unable to tell the difference between adult drag shows and all-ages drag performances. Opponents to this bill bring up that the vague wording would mean that children could not attend some performances of Shakespeare’s plays, as certain companies routinely have men perform in women’s roles to retain the practices of Shakespeare’s time.

Hunt proposed an amendment that uses true-to-life accusations that predators use church-sponsored events like youth group and Bible camps to gain trust and unsupervised access to children to abuse. Though Megan Hunt promises that this amendment, along with her previous ones, aren’t meant to pass, if it were to pass, this would disallow children from attending religiously-based camps, especially those that serve alcohol as part of religious ceremonies, and would fine any group that hosts one of these camps $10,000.