Update, Friday, March 3, 10:24 a.m.: As expected, Governor Bill Lee signed Tennessee’s ban on transition-related care for minors into law on Thursday, alongside a ban on public drag performances. This makes Tennessee the seventh state to pass such a ban on care, and the first state to ever pass a ban on drag. According to the ACLU, youth who are not receiving care as of July 1, 2023, will not be able to begin receiving care in Tennessee; those who are already receiving it by that date will lose access to it after March 31, 2024.
Advocates slammed the health care ban, with Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the ACLU of Tennessee stating that the ban represents the choice of “fearmongering, misrepresentations, intimidation, and extremist politics over the rights of families and the lives of transgender youth in Tennessee.”
The ACLU noted in a press release that all three organizations have promised legal action against Tennessee’s law, and that similar laws in Alabama and Arkansas have been blocked by federal courts.
“We are dedicated to overturning this unconstitutional law and are confident the state will find itself completely incapable of defending it in court,” the organizations wrote. “We want transgender youth to know they are not alone and this fight is not over.”
Original story: Two Tennessee bills, one restricting drag performances and another restricting transition-related care for minors, are headed to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. The drag ban is the first bill of its kind in the nation to pass a 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. A first violation of the law would be a Class A misdemeanor, which carries a sentence of up to 11 months and 29 days in prison and/or a fine of up to $2,500. Subsequent violations would be classified as a Class E felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $3000.
SB 3 passed earlier this month by a vote of 26-6; HB 9 passed on Thursday 74-19. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, who has signed other anti-trans legislation, is expected to sign it into law.
Also on Thursday, the Tennessee House voted 77-16 to pass HB 1, a ban on transition-related care for minors. If providers are found guilty, they could be stripped of their license to practice. The bill would also provide an avenue for patients who received transition-related healthcare as minors to sue providers within 30 years after the patient turns 18.
LGBTQ+ advocates slammed both bills, urging Lee to veto them. “Decisions about transgender medical care should be made between trans patients, their doctors, and their families,” said Kasey Suffredini, Vice President of Advocacy and Government Affairs at The Trevor Project, in a statement provided to Them. “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.”
In a statement, the Human Rights Campaign 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.”
She said bills inspired by prejudice “only rile up an extremist base and normalize violence against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender and nonbinary people,” she said. “We urge Governor Lee to veto this discriminatory bill.
While Tennessee’s bill might be the first to actually pass a state legislature, it’s far from the only anti-drag bill in the United States. Thirty-one drag bans have been introduced in state legislatures during the 2023 legislative session, according to tracking from independent researchers Allison Chapman, Alejandra Caraballo and Erin Reed. Such bans started gaining traction last year, with conservative lawmakers repeatedly demonizing drag performers as “groomers” and child predators. However, as advocates have noted, these drag bans are also often broadly worded enough such that their practical effects could include not just bans on drag performance, but on any public displays of gender nonconformity.
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