The Ohio General Assembly is doing its best to ensure that the phrase “It’s a free country” becomes a dead letter here.

Not content with enforcing Ohio’s criminal ban on supplying obscene materials to minors, culture war politicians are attempting to enact a vague and ill-conceived law prohibiting public drag shows and regulating women’s clothing in an unprecedented manner.

Drag performances, like other types of entertainment such as dance, theater and film, are forms of artistic expression that is squarely protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Drag shows often have elements of humor, athleticism and satire, but at their core, such performances are political statements that challenge societal assumptions surrounding gender. They satirize gender stereotypes by exaggerating and mocking notions of what is acceptable male and female behavior.

Turning police officers into art critics and theater experts

It is a basic precept of constitutional law that the government cannot dictate what viewpoints Americans are allowed to express surrounding gender or almost anything else. As the U.S. Supreme Court recently........

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