Pop star Lizzo invited drag queens onto the stage in her weekend performance in Knoxville, apparently in protest of a Tennessee law that bans drag shows near children.
“In light of recent and tragic events and current events, I was told by people on the internet, ‘Cancel your shows in Tennessee,’ ‘Don’t go to Tennessee,'” Lizzo said during her show. “Their reason was valid, but why would I not come to the people who need to hear this message the most? “The people who need to feel this release the most?”
“Why would I not create a safe space in Tennessee where we can celebrate drag entertainers and celebrate our differences and celebrate fat, Black women?” she said.
House Bill 009, which was enacted into law in March and takes effect in July, is meant to protect children from indecency.
“[The law] “makes it very clear that there are only certain locations where you can have adult-only venues and where minors cannot see them,” State Rep. Chris Todd (R-Madison County) told The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy in February. “It’s pretty simple in that respect.”
“Under the age of 18 is considered a minor, and it describes the type of activity and primarily, just to summarize, anything that is overtly sexual in nature, even mimicking sex acts, or certainly any kind of nudity or anything like that. Again, those words and that language is already in the law,” Todd said. “And it’s well established in case law, as a matter of fact, that things that appeal to what’s considered a prudent interest, which is generally sexual in nature, would be prohibited in front of minors. This law would basically make it just crystal clear.”
Todd noted that some of the pushback against the bill seemed odd.
“One of the things that are really interesting about this is the pushback that we’re getting from the LGBTQ-plus community,” he said. “And you have to ask, why are they so interested in performing in front of our children? That is the key question.”
The Star reached out to Lizzo’s public relations firm to ask just that, but did not receive a response.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Lizzo” by Daniel Benavides. CC BY 2.0.
