A bill that would ban drag performances in public libraries was approved Tuesday by the Alabama Senate Committee on County and Municipal Government.

It will now go to the Senate for a full vote.

Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, condemned the bill, calling it “disgraceful” and “shameful.”

HB 67, sponsored by Rep. Scott Stadthagen, R-Hartselle, defines drag performances as “a performance in which a performer exhibits a sex identity that is different from the sex assigned to the performer at birth using clothing, makeup, or other physical markers.”

While the bill originally banned drag performances in schools also, it was amended this week to only apply to public libraries.

Roughly half a dozen opponents of the bill spoke at the committee’s public hearing on Tuesday to express concerns that the vagueness of HB67 leaves the transgender community vulnerable to discrimination.

Zephyr Scalzetti, a transgender man, said a case could be made that trans people could be classified as being “in drag” at a public library by the bill’s definition.

“Laws can’t be vague because people have to be able to understand what they mean,” said Chris Hathcock.

“This discriminatory behavior is unlikely to survive judicial review.”

Other speakers said the bill was intentionally designed to target the community.

“Who gets to decide what the proper clothes are for one’s sexual identity?” asked Susan Stewart of Huntsville.

“Its [the bill’s] intent is to harm and harass transgender people.”

Ted Holly, the only proponent of the bill who spoke at the hearing, urged lawmakers to pass it after sharing his story of getting sexual reassignment surgery and then later attempting to reverse it.

“Drag shows are grooming children to be transgender,” he said.

“Transgenderism is extremely dangerous. It is not reversible.”

Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, told Holly she was sorry for his experience but added that “we have to take responsibility for our own actions.”

She continued to say that she didn’t understand how the bill “was really helping” since minors have access to all types of content on their phones.

“We want to legislate morality or whatever,” she said.

“That starts at home. It starts in the church.”

She added that within the bill’s text, there’s no appeals process outlined for someone who is arrested or penalized by a library for violating the proposed law.

Hatcher agreed with Coleman-Madison that the decision to engage or not engage with drag should be left up to a child’s parents.

“This is a cultural distraction,” he said, also referencing a bill to endorse President Donald Trump’s name change for the Gulf of Mexico that failed in the committee on Tuesday.

“I am embarrassed by this.”

He went on to say that the state’s attempt to “invalidate” trans and queer people was “shameful.”

“We are not living in normal times and what we are doing to a minority sect of people is nothing short of disgraceful,” he said.