Opponents want Lee to oppose anti-drag bills

As Tennessee lawmakers mull Senate Bill 3 — legislation that could prohibit drag performances in public and any location where someone under 18 could be — more than 200 people rallied at Legislative Plaza on Tuesday to ask Gov. Bill Lee to take a stand against the measure.

Phil Cobucci, founder of Inclusion Tennessee, said the state legislature has lost touch with reality, choosing to target members of the LBGTQ community in bills that would take away freedoms of expression instead of concentrating on what Cobucci said were more important issues to Tennesseans, foster care and Medicaid crises.

“Drag is a multi-hyphenated art form and has been around for centuries,” Cobucci

said. “These attempts by legislators forced us back into the closet and are the absolute antithesis of the constitution that all swore to uphold.”

As rallygoers cheered, Cobucci asked Lee if the proposed bills are tenets of his faith.

“Are they compassionate, do they love your neighbor, do they help others?” Cobucci asked. “I assert here today that they do not.”

Less than two hours after the rally, tensions ran high inside the House Criminal Justice Committee hearing on the bill, where audience members were threatened with removal after contentious back-and-forth testimony. State troopers lined the lobby outside the hearing room, though the committee ultimately proceeded to a vote without further interruptions. House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, clearing the way for a full House vote on the legislation in the coming days.

Challenges in transitioning

As a drag queen and transgender woman, performer Deedee remembers transitioning 25 years ago and how challenges for those transitioning still persist.

“Because of discrimination, disdain and the high rate of transgender murder throughout the country,” Deedee said. “This bill targeting drag entertainers will only add to the discrimination and hatred that I had faced my whole adult life.”

Local drag performer Britney Banks believes in the imagination, creativity and social development that comes with being comfortable in your own skin.

“I’ve always been a creative person and love to play pretend,” Banks said. “As a child, if I wasn’t dancing around the house, I was playing with dolls, dressing up in my mom’s clothes or messing around with face paint.”

While addressing the crowd, Banks said drag brings out an inner child, a joy and happiness to people of all ages.

Continuing the fight

Memphis has a rich history of drag entertainment, hosting the state’s first drag show in 1969 at the Evergreen Theatre, according to Outmemphis Executive Director Molly Quinn.

Quinn said the western and eastern parts of Tennessee are underrepresented at the Capitol, and bills like the drag ban would continue a legacy of government efforts to diminish LGBTQ people.

But the fight continues for Quinn and others as they act against censorship and what she calls intimidation.