Tennessee Lawmakers Attack Trans Rights with New Bills

Two Tennessee bills are headed to the governor’s office after approval from both the state’s house and senate. One bill is aimed at banning drag performances from public spaces, and the other restricts gender-affirming health care for minors.

The drag ban is the first of its kind to pass state legislature. Senate Bill 3 and its companion, House Bill 9, would ban “adult cabaret performances,” including “male or female impersonators,” from taking place in public or in any location where the performance could be viewed by a minor. Initial violations of the law would be a class A misdemeanor, which can carry a sentence of up to 11 months in prison or fines of up to $2500. Subsequent violations would be considered class E felonies, punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $3000.

The bill was introduced in response to family-friendly drag shows, which, unlike adult-oriented drag shows, are specifically designed to be appropriate for all ages. Prominent drag queens such as RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 15 competitor, Aura Mayari, called the ban “blatantly unconstitutional.”

“The state (proposed) this bill to protect children from seeing anything explicit when, in fact, it is a mask used to hide the discrimination toward the LGBTQ+ community and the desire to erase drag. Public indecency is already illegal in Tennessee; this is yet another awful attempt at trying to take away our rights,” Aura tells EW.

Aura added that the bill “also wrongfully targets our trans community by calling out ‘cross-dressing’ in public,” further observing that some “trans people are marked on their ID as their biological sex, and if they were stopped by a cop, then a cop has the ability to jail them because ‘cross-dressing’ is illegal in public. People come to our shows to have a good time and to escape the cruel reality of life,” she continues. “Drag brings joy and inspiration to all audiences. Drag changes people’s lives and that’s what pushes me to continue fighting for our community.”

Additionally, House Bill 1, a measure to ban transition-related care for minors, was passed by the state’s house 77-16. The bill, like others of its kind, would strip providers of their licenses if found guilty. The bill also allows patients to sue for malpractice up to 30 years in the future if they received gender-affirming care before the age of 18.

According to statistics, only ~3% of transgender people choose to de-transition; of that, only 1% after receiving surgeries. Furthermore, the reasons that people choose to de-transition vary and are often not because they were unhappy with treatment or no longer identify as trans. In the U.S., a survey of nearly 28,000 people found that 8% of respondents reported some kind of de-transition. Of this 8%, 62% only did so temporarily due to societal, financial, or family pressures.

The conversation surrounding minors and de-transitioning is rife with misinformation that informs such harmful bills like ones being passed in Tennessee and around the country.

In a statement, the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director Sarah Warbelow accused the Tennessee legislature of spreading “hate, misinformation, and extremism” with its latest bill, while reiterating that this legislation “has real consequences.”