How the SAVE Act and Drag Bans Are Connected

How the SAVE Act and Drag Bans Are Connected

From Glass City Humanist by Douglas Berger - Humanist Advocate

March 30, 2026 · 51 min · Episode 120

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of the SAVE Act on voter registration and connects it to anti-LGBTQ legislation targeting drag performances.

We start this episode talking about the SAVE Act currently being debated in the Congress and how it is meant to make voter registration and voting harder for those who will have trouble getting the higher level of documentation needed to be eligible. We rebuke the narrative that the act is needed to stop the flood of undocumented people voting since there is not a flood as the data has shown and the SAVE Act itself will do far more damage to our democracy, and affecting our elections, than a small random number of people who are not eligible to vote. Douglas draws on his experience as a precinct poll worker to rebut the argument that requiring a photo ID is better than the current comparison of signatures in a poll book. How would a poll worker know the ID being used is real? Then we shift focus to yet another proposed anti-LGBTQ bill, notably Ohio House Bill 249, which seeks to criminalize drag performances, especially in the presence of minors. We express our disappointment not just in the law itself but in the surprising support of such a bill from two members of marginalized groups who are the ones who introduced the bill. The episode brings to light the troubling reality…

People in this episode

Host: Douglas

Topics covered

  • SAVE Act
  • voter registration
  • drag bans
  • anti-LGBTQ legislation

Keywords

  • democracy
  • photo ID
  • Ohio House Bill 249
  • human rights

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Ohio

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