Drag performer Brigitte Bandit was only able to celebrate for a moment on Aug. 25, when a federal district court judge in Texas overturned the state’s drag ban for a second time. As she was awaiting the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas announcement about the win, she saw the video posted to Dolly Parton’s Instagram account that the singer had died that day.

“It kind of shot down my excitement, but I think the rest of the world got the news in opposite order,” Bandit told me on Aug. 28.

Bandit, a plaintiff in the ACLU's lawsuit, has a special relationship to the late country music legend. She went viral in 2023 for testifying in drag at the Texas Capitol against the now-overturned legislation, quoting a children’s book about the late country music legend’s love of big hair and makeup. Later that year, she was gifted a rhinestone-studded guitar signed by Parton, who had seen the video.

"Dolly was discussed throughout this entire case, so for us to lose her the same day that it's struck down – literally what a surreal week it's been," Bandit said.

But despite the bittersweet feeling of the day, the new Texas ruling offered a glimpse of hope for the LGBTQ community in the South who have been caught in the crossfire of the Republican Party’s culture wars waged through government action.

Texas' drag show ban was part of the Republican playbook

The law, Senate Bill 12, was passed by the legislature in 2023 and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott during a time when drag was being contested in states like Florida and Tennessee, and when members of the Proud Boys were showing up at drag queen story hours across the country.

"I watched this happen in real time," Bandit, a Texas native, told........

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