Tennessee Lawmakers Target Trans Youth

In the last couple of months, two new laws in Tennessee have caught widespread attention for their implications for transgender youths and drag performers, respectively, and for the disturbing national trend that they illustrate. While there is much discussion online about both laws, as is often the case, the reality is more nuanced than social media makes it out to be.

The first law was passed on March 2 by Governor Bill Lee. It bans gender-affirming care—including surgeries, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers—for anyone under 18. After July 1 of this year, no trans person who has yet to receive care will be able to do so. For youths who are already receiving gender-affirming care, they will lose access to it after March 31 of next year.

of surgeries for minors, such as breast reductions. Only surgeries intended to treat gender dysphoria or gender identity issues are banned.

Gender-affirming care as a treatment for gender dysphoria in minors is endorsed by major medical organizations such as the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association.

The second law, commonly referred to as an anti-drag law, never actually mentions drag performance by name. Instead, it restricts “adult cabaret performances’’ on public property or in the presence of children and bans such performances within 1000 feet of schools, public parks, or places of worship.

The bill’s definition of “adult cabaret performances’’ includes entertainment such as strippers, exotic dancers, and, most pertinent to the outcry, “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest.” The law classifies all of this as “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors.” an “iterative process” and could lead to future bills which become more radical.

It is important to note that, despite the recent uptick in laws of this sort, legal discrimination against gender non-conforming people is not new. Historian Jules Gill-Peterson believes that “we might expect that the application of the law will reflect the history of American policing, about which we already know a great deal. It’s likely that low-wage nightlife performers, like dancers, drag queens, and sex workers will experience an intensification of policing from forces already long practiced at pursuing them.”

There are many more examples from around the United States of such laws. In 2022 alone, more than 300 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced or passed, the majority of which were directed against transgender individuals. Conservative rhetoric against this portion of the population has only grown louder since the repealing of Roe v Wade.

This is the fourth law of its kind to be passed this legislative session, following laws in Utah, South Dakota, and Mississippi. However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Tennessee, and Lambda Legal have promised legal action against the law. They stated, “We are dedicated to overturning this unconstitutional law and are confident the state will find itself completely incapable of defending it in court. We want transgender youth to know they are not alone and this fight is not over.”

The law comes after a controversy surrounding the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Conservative commentators claimed that the centre was performing genital surgeries on minors. The centre denied the claim, saying that the small number of gender-affirming procedures that they conducted on minors were chest surgeries on patients at least 16 years old who had full parental consent.

Republican lawmakers argue that minors are not mentally developed to the point that they are capable of making life-altering decisions, but the law does not reflect this motivation, since it allows other types

Stella Yarbrough, the legal director of the ACLU of Tennessee, points out that the law only prohibits obscene performances, which does not necessarily include all drag-related events. The vague wording of the law, however, is a cause of fear for supporters of drag, who worry about the impacts this law could have on drag story hours in libraries, Pride parades, and other such events where children are welcome. Even if the law does not, in practice, ban such events, some people fear that the bill and the surrounding narrative imply that drag is inherently sexual and harmful to children, further advancing conservative fear-mongering about drag performers and gender non-conforming people being dangerous.

Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s deputy director for transgender justice, called these laws “political theatre” where Republicans were “performing disgust and outrage” but that laws of this sort are

In response to such recent legislation, Canada’s federal government is facing calls to make the process of seeking asylum easier for transgender and non-binary Americans. A parliamentary petition calling for the government to give members of these communities the right to claim asylum regardless of their country of origin has over 132,000 signatures as of March 14. The federal government maintains that LGBTQ+ Americans can already seek asylum, but some argue that the process should be streamlined and that Canada should do more for asylum seekers.