"Absolute hypocrite": Nate Schatzline in drag video goes viral, Texas lawmaker trolled over response

Nate Schatzline, a legislator from Texas, was ridiculed by netizens after he responded to a video of him in drag. This comes after the legislator authored a bill to restrict drag performances in Texas.

A video that surfaced on TikTok and Twitter this week, features the lawmaker seemingly skipping, dancing, and running in a park with three other people in costume. He himself was wearing a black sleeveless sequined dress, and also had a red eye mask on.

View on TikTok

The video spanned over roughly 90 seconds, at the end of which, the names of the four participants were revealed, including Nate Schatzline, whose character was called "The Virgin".

However, the State Representative responded to the video with another video he shared on Twitter. He said that the left-wing news media was attacking him because of a class project he did as a teenager, where his friends dared him to wear a dress.

Nate was trolled by netizens for this response.

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Nate Schatzline is called out for his hypocritical stance regarding drag shows

What did he say?

In his response video, Nate went on to say that it was an interesting week, adding that:

"Left-wing news media has done exactly what they do, and that is twist stories to be something that they are not."

View on TikTok

He then spoke about him wearing a black dress as part of a school project and said that they were not going to let the video distract people from the real message of what they were trying to get done in the Texas legislature. Nate Schatzline said:

"...ban s*xually explicit drag shows and preserve the innocence of the next generation in Texas. Look, this is exactly what they do. They intimidate, they come at us, but we're not giving one inch. When it comes to protecting the next generation, let's have fun with it, whatever is said, just know, I'm ready to keep fighting for you, for faith, for family, and for freedom."

The Twitter user who posted the clip referred to the lawmaker and said that he built his entire personality based on "attacking the LGBTQ community," while he himself was dressed in drag in the video.

Twitter user @sravan_kri wrote that they asked Nate Schatzline if it was him in the video wearing a black dress, but the Republican blocked him, which, according to the user, confirmed that it was Nate.

Another user, @sardine_liqueur called out both Nate Schatzline and Tennessee governor Bill Lee, who proposed bills to criminalize drag, despite having dressed in drag themselves in the past.

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Nate Schatzline introduced legislation that would ban drag, in January 2023

The new legislation sought to amend Texas’ Business and Commerce Code and defined a venue that hosts drag shows and authorizes on-premise alcohol beverage consumption as a “s*xually oriented business.”

The legislation stated that such businesses, according to the Texas state code, may not permit a person below the age of 18 to enter its premises.

The measure defined a drag performance as something where a performer exhibits a different gender identity than the one the performer was assigned at birth, using makeup, clothing, or other physical markers. The legislation stated that "s*xually oriented businesses" could be categorized as:

"... A nightclub, bar, restaurant, or other commercial enterprise that provides for an audience of two or more individuals a drag performance.”

Legislators from at least a dozen other US states have proposed bills that would restrict drag performances. Those who supported these bills argued that they needed to protect children and their innocence from exposure to s*xualized and inappropriate entertainment.

However, critics have argued that these lawmakers and their bills unfairly targeted an art form that has deep-rooted ties in the LGBTQ community and that they wrongly portrayed the entire category of drag performances as obscene.