No country for LGBT

There's new laws in Tennessee targeting the LGBT community. One law is designed to restrict where certain drag shows can take place. This law was created by the republicans. Senate voted 26-6 in favor of the bill, with only Democrats opposing. The bill is just a little bit different than a version moving through the House chamber. The other law (Senate bill 1) has passed, and it is aimed at care for trans kids.

The drag ban that passed the senate does not include the words "drag show". It does however expand the definition of adult cabaret in Tennessee’s law to include that such “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors,” as defined in Tennessee’s obscenity law. The legislation then bans adult cabaret from taking place on public property or in a location where minors might be present. To be fair, that definition really doesn't describe drag shows or anything to do with drag. The only way that this definition could be describing drag only if the drag performing was doing something that kids shouldn't be seeing.

Drag usually happens in clubs that are 18+ and sometimes 21+. So therefore, that fact renders this bill unnecessary in a sense. There is a difference between a regular drag show and say a drag brunch or drag time story hour. But this law just shows that in some parts of the country drag queens are looked at as monsters. There are a handful of drag queens that do hurt children, but we can say that about a lot of groups.

This bill is about is not about protecting children, it's mainly about hate, fear, and prejudice. There's a saying going around social media, "there is no love like Christian/conservative hate." Sadly, that is true. Conservatives especially those who are religious don't believe in rights for those who are sinners. Even though we are all sinners they only see others as sinners.

Almost over a week after this there was a bill that will stop care for trans people. The bill prohibits children from receiving puberty blockers, hormone therapies or surgical procedures. It will also allow anyone who transitioned as a kid sue their parents or anyone who signed off on their care or provided care to them. An early version of this bill had language that would make seeking gender affirming care for your child would be consider neglect or abuse. Under this trans bills people who were already getting care would have to stop getting care. There were also reports if a minor had already transitioned, they would have a year to undo the transition or detransition.

The ACLU or the American Civil Liberties Union plans to sue the state of Tennessee. The major issue the ACLU has with the bills is the language. The main phrase they have an issue with is "harmful to minors". This term was too vague. In theory anything could be harmful to minors. For example playing violent sports or video games could be harmful to minors.

There are also similar bans on drag queens in other states including Montana, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Arkansas. With the trans laws other states have similar laws to Tennessee including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah. We all knew that if they came for Roe V Wade that the next thing that they would come for the LGBT community and now it's happening.

I will do a deep dive into this in another article, but it seems like the conservatives have waged a war on a lot of things recently and I have not figured out why. But now conservatives have now taken away drag queens' first amendment right. They also don't realize that trans youth that don't get care will kill themselves. I hope they learn what they are doing.