1977 "Hard Luck" photo of Governor Bill Lee in drag expected to be put on billboards
The governor who was found to have dressed in drag after banning public drag shows will soon have his picture highlighted on Tennessee billboards.
Through TikTok and GoFundMe, a Tennessean man named Zachary Stamper raised $54,067 for an electric billboard in Nashville (and on the governor's personal route to his church and home) that will showcase the 1977 Franklin High powderpuff photo that has gone viral.
Powderpuff events [in which girls dressed like boys (often football players) and boys dressed like girls (often cheerleaders)] are common in high schools in the South, and Lee told reporters on Tuesday that it is "ridiculous" to compare them to the drag shows he made a crime with his signature. Never mind that powderpuff is essentially a drag show for minors in which the participants are minors (The Daily Beast).
"He said it’s [the Powerpuff event] supposed to be all in fun," Stamper tells Daily Beast reporter Michael Daly. "But so is drag."
Stamper is scouting possible sites aboard Nashville’s Big Drag Bus, saying that "those drag queens are going to be on there with us as we go around picking out billboards."
He set up a GoFundMe page on Tuesday morning that had collected around $1,700 early that evening. The sum has nearly tripled since that time and still continues to grow.
Jade Byers, the governor's press secretary, released a statement on behalf of Bill Lee, insisting that the new law "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."
With the intentionally vague wording of the bill, it’s unclear if Lee would be charged with a felony for cross-dressing or if he would be exempt from charges.
Alec Karam writes that "the bill associates any form of dressing outside one’s gender as 'adult' entertainment, using the wording 'male or female impersonators.' It makes it illegal to perform such entertainment in public or in places where it could potentially be seen by children. For example, dressing up in drag at a high school, where children are, would be criminalized. And as a male impersonating a female in a photo, Lee could be classified as an 'adult entertainer' in the public purview of children."
It is currently unclear when we may see the photo debut on local billboards, though many are hoping it is soon.
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