Anti-drag law is a bullying tactic
Bill Lee was destined to be our governor.
In his senior year at Franklin High School in 1977, he earned the superlative “Most Outstanding Senior Boy.”
Under a charming photo of him in the school’s yearbook, smiling in a three-piece suit, Lee is listed as vice president of the Student Council, and apparently had plans to study biological sciences. Young Bill is also interested in political sciences and becoming a politician.
“No matter what he chooses to do, Bill has the drive and integrity to succeed in everything he does,” the caption reads.
He certainly was driven, we’ll give him that.
There’s another page of his high school yearbook Gov. Lee should reflect on when sitting at his desk, pen in hand, ready to sign a bill into law that would ban adult cabaret performances in public, including “male or female impersonators.”
On this high school yearbook page, there in stockings, a pearl necklace, a cheap wig and a dress with a hemline so high he’d probably be sent home under schools’ current dress codes, the grinning future governor is pictured with the caption “Hard Luck Woman.”
It’s unclear whether the caption refers to the song “Hard Luck Woman” released in 1976 by the flamboyant, makeup-wearing rock band Kiss, but we like to think the parallel is fitting, especially with the lyric, “Too proud to be a queen” sung so lovingly by Peter Criss.
We can’t imagine the firestorm that would be unleashed today by the “anti-woke” crowd against school administrators if cross-gender dressing was allowed at a sanctioned event.
To be clear, we don’t think Lee should be shamed for cross dressing in high school — he looks like he’s having a great time in the photo — but he should answer for the hypocrisy he’s showing by targeting drag shows in the state with this cabaret law.
Lee defended his “Hard Luck” past this week by differentiating his dabbling in dress wearing and “sexualized entertainment,” the latter of which he said this proposed law is addressing.
But the sponsors of this bill seem to have different understandings of the legislation.
State Rep. Chris Todd, R-Madison County, sought an injunction against a Jackson LGBTQ+ pride event’s drag show last year and forced it to be moved to an age restricted venue, despite assurances from organizers that the drag show was family friendly.
Todd, without viewing the show beforehand, said he knew its content was child abuse.
State Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, likewise seemed to conflate drag shows and sexualized content. Johnson told the Washington Post earlier this month he wasn’t trying to ban drag shows, “but you should be able to take your kids to a public park or library and not be surprised by seeing sexually explicit entertainment taking place.”
Yes, public places should be free of obscenity. Yes, Tennessee already has an obscenity law in place that criminalizes obscene live performances.
Todd, Johnson and Lee can pretend this law is protecting children from sexual content, but its intended purpose is really bullying LGBTQ+ folks who, because they’re in the minority and have very little power at the moment, are easy targets.
Gov. Lee wasn’t named “Biggest Bully” when he was in high school, but he could take the statewide title now.
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