Photo by Rob Laughter on Unsplash

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Ana Mota is a senior at South Grand Prairie High School, which sits in the suburbs between Dallas and Fort Worth. She felt excited when she was cast as the lead, Seymour, in her school’s upcoming production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” which is about an anthropomorphic plant that kills and eats people. The problem: Seymour is traditionally a man’s role, and Mota lives in Texas.

Days after the cast list was announced, school officials stepped in and demanded Mota be removed from the role, citing Texas SB12. They claimed, falsely, that Mota playing a male character opposite a female love interest would violate state and federal law surrounding LGBTQ+ content. Instead, they would give her role to a boy and force her to share the role of Audrey, his love interest.

She refused, and so the district cancelled the show the next day.

“On Tuesday October 6th, I was informed that I will no longer be allowed to portray this role due to a decision made by the district and its legal team concerning Senate Bill 12,” Mota wrote in an Instagram post earlier this week. It has over 10,000 likes as of this writing.

“The district was afraid they were teetering on the line of the laws stated in SB12 and decided to take extreme caution, removing me from the role,” Mota wrote. “In turn, they violated Title 9, I was excluded from participation in an education program receiving Federal financial assistance because I am a female.”

Mota said in the statement that the school cited SB 12 (2023), an anti-drag law which has been struck down twice already, but a spokesperson for the district told Erin in the Morning that it was because of SB 12 (2025), an entirely separate law despite the overlap in name over the years. The latter bill is a “Don’t Say LGBTQ” law, and the ACLU called it “one of the most extreme education bans in the country.”

Mota did not respond to a request for comment from Erin in the Morning.

The Grand Prairie ISD said it was simply trying to comply with state and federal law. However, there is no federal law that bans drag performances, nor any law that restricts LGBT content in classrooms, and it seems any key anti-LGBT provisions of state laws have been halted by a preliminary injunction in other districts.

“Recently, a casting decision was made to place a female student in the role of a male character in the school musical,” a spokesperson told Erin in the Morning in a statement. “In the musical, a romantic relationship develops between the two main characters.”

“When District leadership learned of this issue and in consideration of themes in the musical involving an abusive relationship, a decision was made to pull that production and find something more appropriate,” it continued. “This decision was made in light of the District’s ongoing effort to ensure its programs remain consistent with Senate Bill 12 and all applicable law.” They further clarified they were referencing SB 12 (2025), which was the “Don’t Say LGBTQ” law, as opposed to the 2023 drag ban.

The arts have been especially under attack due to conservatives’ militant enforcement of the gender binary, both on and off the stage. Picture books about penguins and unicorns, rainbow stickers, and Shakespearean theatre have also been targeted by anti-trans animus.

“I do not want a new musical; I want the part I auditioned for, in the musical I expected to do my senior year,” her post continued. “I do not believe it is a fair compromise to take everyone’s parts away instead of just giving what is rightfully mine back.”

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