Congresswoman wants to ban strippers in schools – but it’s never actually happened

A Republican congresswoman wants to ban “nude” strippers from performing in front of children in schools but cannot point to an example of it ever happening. Hint: it hasn’t, and its really about banning any references to trans folks.

The bill, H.R. 7661 also known as the ‘Stop the Sexualization of Children Act‘, was introduced by Illinois representative Mary Miller who has a long history of anti-trans politics.

It seeks to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to ban federal funds being used to “develop, implement, facilitate, host, or promote any program or activity for, or to provide or promote literature or other materials to, children under the age of 18 that includes sexually oriented material”.

The proposed bill sets out that such “sexually oriented material” includes that which “exposes such children to nude adults, individuals who are stripping, or lewd or lascivious dancing”.

It perhaps goes without saying but schools across Illinois, and the wider US, are not hiring dancers to strip off in front of underage pupils.

A quick Google search of the terms “stripper” and “school” in relation to the US specifically does not return any examples of school themselves hiring strippers for students, instead cases where adult performers hired were done as pranks by the students themselves.

One case from 2016 saw a synchronised swimming team in Iowa, made up of ninth grade girls aged between 14 and 15, hire a male stripper to perform at their annual banquet as a joke. The stripper did not completely disrobe, nor did he touch any of the girls.

Another US case, from 2018, involved a female adult performer who was hired by a middle school student in Texas and directed to the school’s location as a prank. Once she realised the place she had been hired to perform at was a school, she informed the front office of the prank before leaving.

The bill later goes on to define the sexual material it seeks to ban as including material related to “gender dysphoria or transgenderism” – this no doubt being the real reason behind the legislation, not the supposed threat posed by exotic dancers.

Again, not citing any examples of strippers performing in schools, Miller said she tabled the bill following reports that various frequently banned LGBTQ+ books for young people, like Gender Queer and All Boys Aren’t Blue, were available in school libraries.

“Parents deserve complete confidence that their tax dollars are being used to promote academic excellence – not to expose children to harmful and explicit material that undermines their innocence,” Miller told right-wing outlet The Daily Signal.

“My legislation draws a clear and enforceable line to ensure our schools remain focused on education, not explicit ideological agendas or radical indoctrination.”