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Tennessee will officially begin restricting drag shows after Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law restricting “adult cabaret performances” — which it defines to include “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers,” and “male or female impersonators.”
The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Sen. Jack Johnson, told CNN the bill “does not ban drag shows in public. It simply puts age restrictions in place to ensure that children are not present at sexually explicit performances.”
As NPR reports, Lee signed the bill on the same day he signed a bill banninggender-affirming health carefor transgender youths in the state.
“The bill specifically protects children from obscene, sexualized entertainment, and any attempt to conflate this serious issue with lighthearted school traditions is dishonest and disrespectful to Tennessee families,” Lee’s press secretary Jade Byerstold various outlets.
Speaking to NPR, Tennessee drag performer Hella Skeleton commented: “For Bill Lee to say, ‘You know, that was lighthearted when I did it,’ that is absolutely absurd when a lot of drag is extremely lighthearted. Apparently when straight men dress up badly in drag, that’s OK. But when gay and queer and trans people do it, that’s not OK.”
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LGBTQ advocates have argued that the bill would go much further than limiting “obscene” entertainment and could impact things like Drag Queen Story Hour events at local libraries, which have been targeted across the country in recent months.
Drag Queen Story Houris an organization with chapters across the U.S., and involves “drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores.” According to the organization’s website, “DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”
In June of last year, police began investigating a potential hate crime after a group ofProud Boys— the far-right, exclusively male group known for instigating violence and espousing misogynistic and racist views — stormed a Drag Queen Story Hour event at a Bay Area library.
“A group of 5 men entered the library and disrupted the reading event,” the sheriff’s office said in the release. “The men were described as members of the Proud Boys organization, known to be a right wing hate group with anti-LGBTQ affiliations.”
Once inside the library, the men “began to shout homophobic and transphobic slurs at the event organizer. The men were described as extremely aggressive with a threatening violent demeanor causing people to fear for their safety.”
source: people.com
