In a move that seems almost certainly doomed for failure, the Tennessee state legislature passed a bill on Thursday that would ban drag shows in public spaces. Governor Bill Lee will need to decide whether to sign it into law or not. The language of the bill seems quite broad, declaring that “male and female impersonators cannot provide entertainment that appeals to prurient interest.” A first conviction under this proposed law would be treated as a misdemeanor while a second conviction would be a felony, potentially resulting in jail time.
Tennessee lawmakers passed a bill banning drag shows in public on Thursday, sending the measure to the Republican Governor Bill Lee’s desk.
The law would make Tennessee the first state to ban public drag, which could also affect LGBTQ+ pride celebrations and transgender people who are in shows of any kind. There are currently 20 bills in 15 US states aimed at drag queen performances.
It’s well-documented thin economic literature that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people damages their economic, physical, and mental well-being. Additionally, discriminatory bills like the one in Tennessee can lower a nation’s GDP.
It’s not that I don’t understand where this bill is coming from and the motivation behind it. Trans activists have been pushing “drag queen story hour” and sometimes highly sexualized drag shows aimed at children. These have taken place in schools, public libraries, and theaters. I get it. I don’t want children being exposed to sexualized performances whether we’re talking about drag shows, strip clubs (male or female, gay or straight), or anything else of the sort.
But this bill doesn’t even limit the ban to performances where children are in attendance. It’s basically just trying to ban drag in general. Doing so without banning all of the strip clubs exposes an underlying “red line” where some sexualized performances are okay while others are not. I can’t imagine this law standing up to a challenge in the courts.
There is also a significant problem with the phrase prurient interest, which the courts have been wrestling with forever. Much like the word pornography, it’s simply not good enough for a judge or jury to say, “I know it when I see it.” If you go to watch a gay pride parade and there are people marching or dancing in drag without exposing their genitals, etc., is that performance being enacted with a prurient interest? I think you can see where I’m going with this.
Also, this blast will hit a lot more targets than the authors probably intended. Not all drag performances involve transgender performers. (And as I’ve said repeatedly, how consenting adults dress is up to them, as long as it meets all applicable nudity restrictions and they aren’t stealing the clothes from someone else’s luggage.) Would Tennessee ban the showing of Mrs. Doubtfire?
I’ll admit that I’ve never been to a drag show, but I know they’ve been around for a long time. And this goes back generations before anyone had ever heard the phrase “gender dysphoria” in the news. Were I on his staff, I would be advising Governor Lee to either veto or ignore this bill because it will be an embarrassment for the Tennessee GOP if goes down in flames when challenged. Perhaps a better course of action would be to review all of the current laws covering where minors are allowed to go and the types of performances they can take in. But even then, bans on any such performances would need to apply to every performer regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or anything else.
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