Tennessee will ban some drag performances as well as gender-affirming healthcare for trans minors after state House lawmakers sent both bills to Republican Gov. Bill Lee to sign, The Hill reported.
Republican state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson introduced both measures.
Tennessee's Senate Bill 3 would amend an existing state law preventing "adult-oriented businesses" from operating within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks or places of worship to include "adult cabaret performances"—and drag shows are now included (at least, according to this legislation).
The drag ban is the first in the nation to pass a state legislature.
First-time violators may be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by jail time of up to a year and fines that may total $2,500. Subsequent offenses would be a Class E felony, carrying a sentence of one to six years in prison under state law.
The healthcare bill, which was also introduced in November by Johnson, aims to prohibit health care professionals from providing gender-affirming care to minors "for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex."
Lee confirmed he would sign the bill—even after a photo that appears to show him dressed in drag as a high school student had already started to circulate on Reddit and Twitter, NBC News noted. The photo's caption reads, "Governor Bill Lee in drag (1977 high school yearbook)."
"What a ridiculous, ridiculous question that is," Lee responded in an exchange that was recorded and shared on Twitter by the news site The Tennessee Holler after he was asked if he remembered dressing in drag in 1977. "Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject."
