Tennessee Governor Anticipated To Signal Drag Ban Apparently As soon as Wore Drag In Yearbook Photograph
A teenage boy carrying a brief skirt, tight sweater and a protracted beaded necklace smiled as he stood on a enjoying area posing for a photograph that later appeared within the 1977 Franklin Excessive College yearbook. The black-and-white picture was paired with a caption: “Onerous Luck Lady.”
The topic seems to be Tennessee Gov. Invoice Lee (R), who now plans to criminalize such conduct.
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A invoice that amends state regulation in opposition to obscenity and pornography to incorporate sure “grownup cabaret” performances handed the Tennessee Home and Senate final week. Lee stated Monday he deliberate to signal it.
Franklin Excessive College by way of Ancestry.com
The laws makes it unlawful for “male or feminine impersonators” to carry out in public or anywhere a minor might view them. First-time offenders could be slapped with a misdemeanor cost, and any subsequent offense counts as a felony.
The yearbook photograph went viral on Reddit this week after the person who posted it heard the anti-drag invoice was effectively on its method to changing into regulation.
“College grounds is the important thing … the regulation he’ll probably signal is in opposition to drag on public property. I’m positive it will likely be signed, however the hypocrisy must be poked at,” the person wrote.
“I’m positive minors have been current!!” Tennessee state Rep. Vincent Dixie (D) commented on Twitter.
Lee reacted angrily when confronted with the picture at a press convention Monday. Nevertheless, he didn’t deny it was him within the photograph.
👀 WATCH: “Do you keep in mind dressing in drag in 1977? Is it solely unlawful when homosexual folks do it?” @GovBillLee didn’t recognize that we printed out the FRANKLIN HIGH YEARBOOK PHOTO — however didn’t deny it’s him. In the meantime he’s about to make drag a felony by signing an absurd regulation.🤔 pic.twitter.com/C7YQcQyis3
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) February 27, 2023
“What a ridiculous, ridiculous query that’s,” Lee stated on the press convention. “Conflating one thing like that to sexualized leisure in entrance of kids, which is a really critical topic.”
Like actors do once they tackle totally different roles, drag performers can current a variety of content material — not all of it suggestive.
Tennessee’s invoice comes as conservatives nationwide more and more set their sights on squashing expressions of gender and sexuality that don’t conform to the standard binary.
Critics say the laws can be written so obscure that it might go additional than banning drag exhibits and be used as a weapon in opposition to transgender individuals who costume in keeping with their gender id.
