Tennessee's anti-drag law, explained

Brut America

"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 ...

Transcript

00:00On April 1st, public drag will now be criminalized.

00:04This is an attempt to erase drag in Tennessee.

00:08Tennessee has just become the first state to pass a bill restricting drag performances.

00:14On March 2nd, Governor Bill Lee signed a law

00:17which makes a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property

00:22or where it can be viewed by minors a criminal offense.

00:26The law also states that those performances include male or female impersonators

00:31aka drag queens and drag kings.

00:34There's this idea that if you expose a child to a drag queen

00:39suddenly they're going to become queer.

00:42It's not vampirism. We cannot turn kids queer.

00:45We're not trying to turn anyone.

00:47We just want the queer kids to survive.

00:50Bella Duval is a Memphis-based drag queen.

00:53This is how she says the law will affect her when it comes into effect on April 1st.

00:58This bill seeks to state that all drag artists are indeed adult cabaret performers.

01:04Drag is just like any other art.

01:07There is comedy that is appropriate for children and there is comedy that is not.

01:11This is true of music and film and every other media.

01:16Just because a movie theater shows G-rated films and also R-rated films

01:21doesn't say that the kids can't go to the theater at all.

01:24We've had public drag performances here in Tennessee for over 50 years

01:28and these kind of performances that we're talking about would be anything in the public eye

01:32which includes our annual pride parade and festival.

01:35It would include the drag queen story times that the library asks me to come lead.

01:39The Tennessee law comes as Republicans across a dozen states are pushing for similar bills.

01:45For me, the religious right is always looking for a boogeyman.

01:50When this law was proposed, I asked the governor to provide any evidence

01:56of a child ever being harmed or abused at a drag show and he could produce none.

02:01It's because no such evidence exists. Kids haven't been harmed at drag shows.

02:06Conversely, here in Tennessee, we have 700 Southern Baptist ministers on the registered sex offender list

02:13and we don't make any attempt to regulate whether or not parents can take their kids to church.

02:18All we ask is that people continue to uphold parents' rights to decide what's appropriate for their kids.

02:23For Bellage Bell, drag story hours and all-ages brunch drag performances

02:28also act as a safe space for the younger queer community.

02:32This argument about protecting the kids, to me, discounts the existence of queer children.

02:39Growing up as a gay kid, I knew I was different from a very young age

02:44and it would have done me a lot of good to have been able to see representation in my world

02:49that said that there was a place for me.

02:51Also, a lot of their parents do not have a lot of knowledge of the trans experience or the queer community

02:57and they come to us seeking.

02:59They look to older trans elders and they're like,

03:02do you have a doctor that you trust? Do you have a therapist that you would recommend?

03:06I'm just trying to learn how to love my kid right, but I don't know anything about this.

03:10If I go into a space and read a story to a child that is going to grow up queer,

03:16that child sees a future.

03:19If I read a story to a kid that is straight and is never going to be queer,

03:24the worst that can happen is that it exposes them to the idea that the world is full of different people

03:30and not everyone is just like you and you have to learn to get along with them.

03:34On the same day the law restricting drag performances was signed,

03:38Governor Bill Lee also signed a law that imposes a total ban on gender affirming healthcare for transgender children.

03:45I've had a lot of people suggest, they're like, just move, just move.

03:49And there are a couple of problems with that.

03:52First off, there are similar legislations on the books in 18 other states.

03:58This is not a Tennessee issue, it's spreading across the nation.

04:02So the number of spaces that would be safe for me is dwindling.

04:07Not only that, if I go, who will fight for the future queer kids that have to grow up here?

04:15The law received further backlash as a newly unearthed photo of Governor Bill Lee emerged

04:20showing him in 1977 dressed in a girl's cheerleading uniform.

04:25Do you remember dressing in drag in 1977, Governor?

04:28What a ridiculous, ridiculous question that is.

04:31Do you remember it?

04:32Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject.

04:40I agree with him that it's ridiculous. Those aren't the same thing.

04:44But he does not seem to agree that he signed into effect a law that makes no such distinctions.

04:50That law is so vague about what a male or female impersonator is.

04:54Does it apply to cosplayers? Does it apply to wrestlers?

04:58The ACLU has vowed to challenge the law if it is used to punish a drag performer

05:03or shut down a family-friendly LGBTQ event.

05:06However, expressing concern that the law could be used to censor people

05:11based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate.

05:15When I first heard that he had signed the law, I was very afraid, a lot of anger.

05:22But as soon as the law was signed, the cavalry started to show up.

05:26Very shortly thereafter, the White House press secretary made a very similar statement

05:30how the governor was concentrating on non-issues and passing legislation that was, quote,

05:36dangerous to the LGBTQ plus community.

05:39This is draconian legislation.

05:41This is running so far back in time and so against the idea of freedom and liberty.

05:47I don't understand how it became freedom of speech for those that agree with me.

05:56For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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