Tennessee's ban on exotic dancing is an overly broad attack on Free Speech...

Get the Point!

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a Bill last week that criminalizes anyone who dresses or performs in drag on public property, in general, and specifically proscribes: "topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers.”

Geez, had the hetero parts of this bill been the law across the South during my student days at Morehouse, FAMU Grad, and UF Law, I and my whole crew of friends might have been felony offenders based upon the time that we spent at Club Nikki's and the Blue Flame in Atlanta, and the Rolexxx down in Miami 😆.

Circa July 1996, my best friends from Morehouse were taking a break from our grad school studies only a few hours after enjoying food, spirits, and cigars at Miami Subs and Club Rolexxx, a famous “gentleman’s club,” in North Miami. Kneeling-(left) Rodney Alan (Duke Medical School), Kenneth Taite (UF Building Construction School). Back (left) Ol' Hobbs (UF Law), Richard Alan (U.Miami Law), Victor Owens (Harvard Business School). Photo taken by William “Billy” Norris, (Meharry Medical College).

Clearly, that's a long list of prurient interests, not all of which specifically target the LGBTQ community despite the aim being to antagonize a demographic that far too many so-called "Values Voters" believe runs contrary to their so-called "Christian values."

Even the Ku Klux Klan has always touted the organization as one founded on “Christian” values.

I use "so-called" in the prior paragraph because as a Baptized Christian since November of 1982, I have lived long enough to know that some of the most racist, sexist, homophobic, and religiously bigoted people in America claim to be followers of Christ and believe that they are "doing their Master's will" by codifying their bigotry into law. 

But as I often remind, America was NOT founded as a theocracy and contrary to popular (and quite wrong) sentiment, the U.S. Constitution does not hold dear to "Judeo-Christian values" in any way, shape, or form. 

Lest we forget that the Pilgrims and assorted colonizers from Europe sailed West for the purpose of practicing Catholicism, Methodism, Anglicism, Episcopalianism, and Lutheranism as they saw fit. Lest we also forget that the descendants of those Pilgrims and assorted colonizers, men revered as "Founding Fathers" like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams—British subjects one and all—ensured within the very First Amendment of the Constitution that the new Republic would neither "establish" nor "prevent the free exercise of religion." Those two phrases have meant for well over two centuries that "Christ" may be the head of some of our individual lives, but he sure isn't supposed to be the head of the federal or individual state governments. 

The above facts are the primary reason why I aver that Tennessee's law, much like Florida's "Stop Woke Act" and other infringements upon free speech by Republican leaders across America, very likely will be struck down in federal courts on First Amendment grounds. Still, those hard headed, hard hearted, and all too bigoted Republicans will push their cultural war narratives because it is far easier for them to codify laws designed to marginalize or impede the progress of gays, lesbians, transgender, Blacks, and other people of color, than it is for them to address the high illiteracy, high unemployment, and high poverty rates in their struggling states—especially in the South.

Thus, with regards to Tennessee's new law, I am willing to wager that just about every Republican man that voted for this farce has spent some time at a topless bar, strip club, or house of ill repute in their lives—and/or have laughed raucously when male actors have dressed like women in movies, on television and on stage, like:

Robin Williams as “Mrs. Doubtfire”…

Flip Wilson as “Geraldine Jones”

Heck, even Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) was dressed in drag while in college, as the photo that was pulled out of somebody's closet shows below:

College era Billy Lee (left-center) dressed like a woman during a skit. On the right, hypocritical Gov. Bill Lee doing what hypocrites do…

Which leads to my last dig at "so-called Christians," but this “drag” aimed squarely at my Black Christian Brothers and Sisters who are quick to join these Republican reprobates on anti-LGBTQ issues because they just love to claim what "their Bible" says about this, that, or the third. News flash, skin/kin folks: The Republicans who are castigating gays and lesbians today are also castigating Black people by limiting what can be taught about Black history—while usurping Black voting rights in the same legislative sessions!!! Which means that when you take to social media to march in ideological lock-step with conservatives against one minority group just because of your own personal sexual preferences, identity, and religious dogma, you help fuel their efforts against your own minority group—and look like a 🤡 in so doing!