Musicians, local institutions and the White House have condemned Tennessee's new law designed to restrict some drag performances.
makes it a crime to perform "adult cabaret" in public or where minors could see it.
"Adult cabaret" refers to "adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors" under the state's obscenity code. The law says those performances might include "male or female impersonators.""The legal definition for 'harmful to minors' in Tennessee is very narrow and only covers extreme sexual or violent content with no artistic value," the ACLU of Tennessee said in a statement.
The ACLU says that because drag performances "are not inherently obscene" and wouldn't be considered "harmful to minors" under the obscenity code, they should not be affected by the new law.LGBTQ+ advocates worry that, regardless of the narrow wording, the law will be used to stop drag performances or target transgender residents.
"The murkiness of this law is causing a lot of people to be on edge," Micah Winter, a performer and board member of a theater company in Memphis,ACLU-TN legal director Stella Yarbrough said in a statement the group would challenge enforcement "used to punish a drag performer or shut down a family-friendly LGBTQ event."
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