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Tennessee's anti-drag law, explained
Brut America
Follow
3/9/2023
"This is an attempt to erase drag in Tennessee."
On April 1, Tennessee will become the first state to enforce restrictions on drag performances. Here's what Bella DuBalle, a local drag queen, had to say about the law ...
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00:00
On April 1st, public drag will now be criminalized.
00:04
This is an attempt to erase drag in Tennessee.
00:08
Tennessee has just become the first state to pass a bill restricting drag performances.
00:14
On March 2nd, Governor Bill Lee signed a law
00:17
which makes a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property
00:22
or where it can be viewed by minors a criminal offense.
00:26
The law also states that those performances include male or female impersonators
00:31
aka drag queens and drag kings.
00:34
There's this idea that if you expose a child to a drag queen
00:39
suddenly they're going to become queer.
00:42
It's not vampirism. We cannot turn kids queer.
00:45
We're not trying to turn anyone.
00:47
We just want the queer kids to survive.
00:50
Bella Duval is a Memphis-based drag queen.
00:53
This is how she says the law will affect her when it comes into effect on April 1st.
00:58
This bill seeks to state that all drag artists are indeed adult cabaret performers.
01:04
Drag is just like any other art.
01:07
There is comedy that is appropriate for children and there is comedy that is not.
01:11
This is true of music and film and every other media.
01:16
Just because a movie theater shows G-rated films and also R-rated films
01:21
doesn't say that the kids can't go to the theater at all.
01:24
We've had public drag performances here in Tennessee for over 50 years
01:28
and these kind of performances that we're talking about would be anything in the public eye
01:32
which includes our annual pride parade and festival.
01:35
It would include the drag queen story times that the library asks me to come lead.
01:39
The Tennessee law comes as Republicans across a dozen states are pushing for similar bills.
01:45
For me, the religious right is always looking for a boogeyman.
01:50
When this law was proposed, I asked the governor to provide any evidence
01:56
of a child ever being harmed or abused at a drag show and he could produce none.
02:01
It's because no such evidence exists. Kids haven't been harmed at drag shows.
02:06
Conversely, here in Tennessee, we have 700 Southern Baptist ministers on the registered sex offender list
02:13
and we don't make any attempt to regulate whether or not parents can take their kids to church.
02:18
All we ask is that people continue to uphold parents' rights to decide what's appropriate for their kids.
02:23
For Bellage Bell, drag story hours and all-ages brunch drag performances
02:28
also act as a safe space for the younger queer community.
02:32
This argument about protecting the kids, to me, discounts the existence of queer children.
02:39
Growing up as a gay kid, I knew I was different from a very young age
02:44
and it would have done me a lot of good to have been able to see representation in my world
02:49
that said that there was a place for me.
02:51
Also, a lot of their parents do not have a lot of knowledge of the trans experience or the queer community
02:57
and they come to us seeking.
02:59
They look to older trans elders and they're like,
03:02
do you have a doctor that you trust? Do you have a therapist that you would recommend?
03:06
I'm just trying to learn how to love my kid right, but I don't know anything about this.
03:10
If I go into a space and read a story to a child that is going to grow up queer,
03:16
that child sees a future.
03:19
If I read a story to a kid that is straight and is never going to be queer,
03:24
the worst that can happen is that it exposes them to the idea that the world is full of different people
03:30
and not everyone is just like you and you have to learn to get along with them.
03:34
On the same day the law restricting drag performances was signed,
03:38
Governor Bill Lee also signed a law that imposes a total ban on gender affirming healthcare for transgender children.
03:45
I've had a lot of people suggest, they're like, just move, just move.
03:49
And there are a couple of problems with that.
03:52
First off, there are similar legislations on the books in 18 other states.
03:58
This is not a Tennessee issue, it's spreading across the nation.
04:02
So the number of spaces that would be safe for me is dwindling.
04:07
Not only that, if I go, who will fight for the future queer kids that have to grow up here?
04:15
The law received further backlash as a newly unearthed photo of Governor Bill Lee emerged
04:20
showing him in 1977 dressed in a girl's cheerleading uniform.
04:25
Do you remember dressing in drag in 1977, Governor?
04:28
What a ridiculous, ridiculous question that is.
04:31
Do you remember it?
04:32
Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject.
04:40
I agree with him that it's ridiculous. Those aren't the same thing.
04:44
But he does not seem to agree that he signed into effect a law that makes no such distinctions.
04:50
That law is so vague about what a male or female impersonator is.
04:54
Does it apply to cosplayers? Does it apply to wrestlers?
04:58
The ACLU has vowed to challenge the law if it is used to punish a drag performer
05:03
or shut down a family-friendly LGBTQ event.
05:06
However, expressing concern that the law could be used to censor people
05:11
based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate.
05:15
When I first heard that he had signed the law, I was very afraid, a lot of anger.
05:22
But as soon as the law was signed, the cavalry started to show up.
05:26
Very shortly thereafter, the White House press secretary made a very similar statement
05:30
how the governor was concentrating on non-issues and passing legislation that was, quote,
05:36
dangerous to the LGBTQ plus community.
05:39
This is draconian legislation.
05:41
This is running so far back in time and so against the idea of freedom and liberty.
05:47
I don't understand how it became freedom of speech for those that agree with me.
05:56
For more UN videos visit www.un.org
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