Tennessee Governor Set to Ban Drag Shows Would Rather Not Talk About the Time He Dressed in Drag

Tennessee governor Bill Lee announced on Monday that he will sign a bill banning drag show performances within 1,000 feet of public parks, schools, or places of worship. If the bill becomes law, first-time violators could face fines of up to $2,500 and up to a year in prison; any further offense would be classified as a felony that is punishable by up to six years in prison. Given that Lee believes it’s reasonable to imprison people from engaging in this sort of activity, you’d probably expect that never in his life—not even once!—did he show up in a public place dressed like a woman. And yet!

Over the weekend, an unearthed yearbook photo of Lee surfaced on Reddit showing him in a dress and pearls, with the caption “Hard Luck Woman.” Given that Lee was objectively dressed in drag—and seemingly on school property!—the bill he is about to sign, if in effect at the time, could have resulted in him being fined heftily, as well as in 11 months and 29 days behind bars. Yet asked about the 1977 photo by The Daily Beast, Lee’s office insisted there is absolutely no comparison between what he did as a teen and what he is trying to make illegal. “The bill specifically protects children from obscene, sexualized entertainment, and any attempt to conflate this serious issue with lighthearted school traditions is dishonest and disrespectful to Tennessee families,” a spokesperson told the outlet.

Confronted with a copy of the photo during a press conference on Monday and asked, “Do you remember dressing in drag in 1977?” Lee snapped and angrily responded: “What a ridiculous, ridiculous question that is. Conflating something like that to sexualized entertainment in front of children, which is a very serious subject…” He trailed off and did not respond when asked if he only thinks drag should be “illegal when gay people do it.”

Of course, Republicans like Lee have basically argued that anyone wearing drag is sexualizing children, period. Hence the uproar over Drag Story Hour, a national event in which drag performers literally just read books to kids. And despite Lee’s claims of people unfairly “conflating” things, as The Daily Beast notes, the Tennessee bill “is vaguely worded and it’s unclear…if Lee wearing women’s clothing would be exempt from its felony categorization.” As written, it might not be!

Lee is far from the only GOP official to try and make drag shows illegal in many situations, with at least 14 states crafting similar pieces of legislation. He’s also not the only blatant hypocrite: Representative George Santos, who has spoken approvingly of laws like “Don’t Say Gay,” reportedly dressed in drag while living in Brazil and went by the name drag name “Kitara Ravache.” (Santos has both denied this and also said, of a photo of him dressed in drag, “I was young and I had fun at a festival. Sue me for having a life.”) Meanwhile, failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has claimed drag queens are dangerous to children, reportedly hired a drag queen to perform for a party at her home (with her children apparently present) and at bars in Arizona. (Lake’s campaign acknowledged to The Washington Post that she had attended an event with a “Marilyn Monroe impersonator.” She later sent a cease and desist letter to Richard Stevens, the drag queen who had called her out, with a spokesperson for Lake accusing him of “defamatory lies.”)

Raging hypocrisy aside, it’s difficult to take Lee and other Republicans seriously when they claim they are passing and signing these types of bills for the children. For one thing, it’s not clear how the mere presence of a drag performer hurts kids, nor is it readily apparent how, for example, being read to in a library by a person in drag would be detrimental to a child’s well-being. For another, people like Lee are passing and signing laws that will actively harm kids; on Monday, the governor also said that he would prohibit gender-affirming care for minors. That’s going to have a much more devastating impact on a trans child than being in the same room as a friendly drag queen.