Tennessee bans on drag shows, gender-affirming care head to governor

Tennessee is set to ban some drag performances as well as gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, after state House lawmakers sent both bills to Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for final approval on Thursday.

Tennessee’s Senate Bill 3, introduced in November by state Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R), seeks to 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,” which the legislation defines as performances that feature “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest.”

Shows with topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers may also be classified as adult cabaret performances under the proposed law.

Johnson in a statement to Reuters this week said the measure should give “confidence to parents that they can take their kids to a public or private show and will not be blindsided by a sexualized performance.”

Tennessee Rep. Chris Todd (R), who sponsored the companion House Bill 9, told his colleagues on Thursday that he was driven to introduce the measure after filing a court order last year to stop an advertised “family-friendly” drag show from taking place in a public park.

The drag performance, organized as part of an LGBTQ Pride event in Jackson, was ultimately forced to move to an indoor location and limited to spectators aged 18 years or older. Todd on the House floor on Thursday said he was afterward tasked with drafting legislation “that would make this much more clear” for future performances.

Johnson’s bill passed the Senate earlier this month on a vote 26-6. House Bill 9 passed on Thursday, 74-19. It now heads to Lee’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law. 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 totaling up to $2,500. Any subsequent offenses would be a Class E felony, carrying a sentence of one to six years in prison under state law.

Banning gender-affirming health care for minors

Tennessee House legislators on Thursday also sent a measure to bar transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming health care to the governor’s desk on a 77-16 vote.

The proposed 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.”

The legislation includes exceptions for youth who require treatments like puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and surgeries for reasons other than the treatment of gender dysphoria or “mental condition, disorder, disability, or abnormality.”

House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R), who sponsored a companion bill in the House, wrote in an October Tennessean op-ed that his and Johnson’s bills were partially informed by reporting from the conservative podcaster and Daily Wire columnist Matt Walsh.

“Cultural forces from the left would like us to accept an alarming new myth; that gender is not a biological reality,” Lamberth wrote.

Gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and adults is considered safe and medically necessary by most major medical organizations.

In September, a set of viral social media posts from Walsh claimed Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Tennessee was abusing children by providing gender-affirming medical care to minors, resulting in calls for an investigation into the hospital’s transgender health clinic from state officials, including Lee.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center accused Walsh of misrepresenting facts about the care provided to transgender youth. In October, the hospital said it would pause gender-affirming surgeries for transgender youth for up to several months while it conducts a review.

LGBTQ advocates bash the bans

LGBTQ advocacy groups on Thursday condemned the state legislature’s approval of the two bills and urged Lee to veto them.

“These extremist lawmakers have intentionally made life harder and more dangerous for trans kids,” Cathryn Oakley, the state legislative director and senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement.

“Decisions about transgender medical care should be made between trans patients, their doctors, and their families,” Kasey Suffredini, vice president of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ youth suicide prevention group, said on Thursday. “Politicians have no business deciding these personal matters by enforcing blanket bans that defy professional guidance from every major medical and mental health association in the country.”

“We urge the governor to reject this harmful bill and, instead, work to expand access to best-practice medical care for young people across Tennessee,” Suffredini said.

The American Civil Liberties Union and its Tennessee affiliate, as well as the LGBTQ civil rights organization Lambda Legal, have pledged to sue the state if Lee signs either bill.

Tennessee is poised to become the fifth state to enact a total ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender minors. Arizona passed a partial ban last year.

A 2021 Tennessee law prohibits medical providers from providing hormone-related medications to prepubertal minors, who are not eligible for gender-affirming medical care under standards set by the World Professional Association of Transgender Health and the Endocrine Society.

The only acceptable form of gender-affirming health care for transgender minors who have not yet entered puberty in the state is social transition, which can include using a different name or pronouns or wearing clothing that affirms an individual’s gender identity.