Tennessee takes lead in Republican effort to restrict drag shows 

[February 23, 2023]  By Jonathan Allen

(Reuters) - Tennessee lawmakers will debate on Thursday whether to restrict drag performances in public or in front of children, one of more than a dozen bills limiting drag advanced by Republican politicians in at least 15 states in recent months.

The bills have come as modern drag has grown from an underground performance art using costumes and makeup to play with gender norms, which flourished in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) venues, to a mainstream entertainment, helped in part by the popularity of the televised pageant show "RuPaul's Drag Race."

Performers and civil rights groups have condemned the proposed drag regulations, saying they are unconstitutional, redundant under existing obscenity laws, and would lead to further harassment and violence against gay and transgender people. They see the bills as part of a Republican effort to advance laws limiting LGBT people's conduct across the country.

Supporters of the bills say they are intended to protect children.

"It gives confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance," Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican, said in a statement.

This month, Johnson and his Senate colleagues passed a bill criminalizing "adult cabaret entertainment" in public or where it could be seen by children. The bill defined such entertainment as including "adult-oriented" performances by strippers, go-go dancers or "male or female impersonators." The House of Representatives will weigh its version of the bill on Thursday.

A first offense would be a misdemeanor crime, and a subsequent offense a felony, carrying a sentence of between one and six years in prison.

Tennessee, like other states, already has public indecency and obscenity laws that ban excessively violent or sexual performances in front of minors, regardless of the performer's gender. Drag performances typically do not involve nudity or stripping.

Peppermint, a drag performer who rose to fame on "Drag Race," said anti-drag bills were just the latest in a long history of anti-LGBT legislation that is premised on false, dangerous slurs against gay and trans people: that they are "grooming" children or seeking to sexually exploit them.

U.S. drag queen 'Peppermint' performs during the 31th annual gay and lesbian Mardi Gras parade in central Sydney March 7, 2009. REUTERS/Daniel Munoz (AUSTRALIA SOCIETY)

"It's a straw man, it's a boogie monster, it's not really a real thing, so they make up stories," she said. "The first thing they do is target us, dehumanize us, villainize us, and then they pass legislation against us."

As a trans woman, Peppermint said she would hesitate going to Tennessee should the bill become law, saying trans performers even when not doing drag might be accused of being a male or female impersonator, terms not defined in the statute.

In recent years, drag has become increasingly visible. Drag queens have starred in fast-food and car commercials. Restaurants organize all-ages drag brunches, with performers entertaining diners. Established in 2015, Drag Story Hour, in which costumed drag performers read to children, has expanded to at least 20 states.

There has been a backlash, too. Drag Story Hour in particular has become a target for Republican lawmakers and conservative Christian groups, and the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group, have protested against libraries and other host venues around the country.

Drag performers say they are just as able to tailor their act to their audience as other artists, like an actor who might appear in both a sexually explicit R-rated movie and in a children's movie.

"Drag is best known for humor and for glamour: We're talking about people lip-syncing to pop songs and dancing around in elaborate costumes," Lynne Pervis, a Tennessee courts administrator who has sometimes done drag, testified in opposition to the bill at a committee hearing. "Seeing a drag queen doesn't make a kid gay or trans, but it can help queer kids who are suffering so that there's hope of being able to one day freely express themselves."

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; editing by Paul Thomasch and Josie Kao)

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