Tennessee GOP files bill to ban drag performances in public spaces

Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican, has introduced legislation to prohibit drag entertainers from performing on public property or at private functions where their performance may be viewed by a minor. 

Johnson’s bill would amend a state law preventing adult-oriented businesses like strip clubs from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks or places of worship to include “adult cabaret performances,” including those of exotic dancers and “male or female impersonators.” 

Johnson told WKRN-TV in Nashville this week that the bill is designed to prevent drag shows that are “sexual in nature” from being performed in places where children may be present, but said there would be some exceptions. 

“I don’t want to ban a theater company from doing a production of Mrs. Doubtfire in a public park,” Johnson said. “Most people have seen that movie where Robin Williams was dressing up as a woman. We don’t have an issue with that. We do have an issue with men dressed as women simulating sex acts in public parks in front of kids.” 

Should the bill advance through Tennessee’s Republican-controlled legislature and receive the approval of Gov. Bill Lee (R), first-time offenders would be guilty of a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by jail time of up to a year and a fine of $2,500. 

Repeat offenders would be charged with a Class E felony, which carries a prison sentence of up to six years and fines totaling up to $3,000. 

Johnson, who won reelection in Tuesday’s midterms, campaigned on a promise to preserve the conservative values of Tennesseans, including the notion that marriage “must remain the sacred union of one man and one woman.” 

On Wednesday, Johnson filed another bill in partnership with Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R) and the conservative podcaster and Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh to ban doctors from providing gender-affirming health care to transgender youth under 18. 

Johnson’s bill targeting drag performances is the latest in a series of steps taken by Republicans to crack down on drag entertainment, which they have accused of being dangerous and inappropriate for young viewers. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in July filed a complaint against a Miami restaurant that had hosted a drag brunch event with children present, citing a 1947 state Supreme Court ruling that “men impersonating women” in a “suggestive and indecent” fashion constitutes a public nuisance. 

At a June news conference in Fort Myers Beach, DeSantis suggested parents who take their children to similar functions could be investigated by Florida’s child protective services department. 

“We have laws against child endangerment,” he said. 

A campaign ad aired earlier this year for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) featured footage of a Drag Queen Story Hour event in Los Angeles. 

“The radical left will destroy children if we don’t stop them,” Rubio says in the ad. “They indoctrinate children, try to turn boys into girls.” 

In October, more than 30 House Republicans signed on to a measure to prohibit federal funds from being used for programs or events for children younger than 10 that contain “sexually-oriented material,” which the bill defines as “any topic involving gender identity, gender dysphoria, transgenderism, sexual orientation, or related subjects.” 

The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), said in a statement that the measure is necessary to stop a “misguided crusade” led by Democrats to expose the nation’s children to “sexual imagery and radical gender ideology.” 

Such rhetoric has galvanized far right and extremist groups like the Proud Boys that target LGBTQ people and events hosted by the community. 

In June, authorities in California launched a hate crime investigation after a children’s story hour at a San Francisco-area library was disrupted by protesters who hurled insults and anti-LGBTQ slurs at a drag queen. Similar events at public libraries and schools across the country have been canceled due to threats from extremist organizations. 

Last week, an Oklahoma doughnut shop was firebombed in what is suspected to be a hate crime after the establishment hosted a drag event.