Tennessee

Tennessee takes lead in Republican effort to restrict drag shows

Published

2 years ago

February 23, 2023

Tennessee takes lead in Republican effort to restrict drag shows

Feb 23 (Reuters) – Tennessee lawmakers will debate on Thursday whether or not to limit drag performances in public or in entrance of youngsters, one among greater than a dozen payments limiting drag superior by Republican politicians in a minimum of 15 states in current months.

The payments have come as fashionable drag has grown from an underground efficiency artwork utilizing costumes and make-up to play with gender norms, which flourished in lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) venues, to a mainstream leisure, helped partly by the recognition of the televised pageant present “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

Performers and civil rights teams have condemned the proposed drag laws, saying they’re unconstitutional, redundant beneath current obscenity legal guidelines, and would result in additional harassment and violence towards homosexual and transgender individuals. They see the payments as a part of a Republican effort to advance legal guidelines limiting LGBT individuals’s conduct throughout the nation.

Supporters of the payments say they’re supposed to guard kids.

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“It offers confidence to folks that they’ll take their youngsters to a public or non-public present and won’t be blindsided by a sexualized efficiency,” Tennessee Senate Majority Chief Jack Johnson, a Republican, mentioned in a press release.

This month, Johnson and his Senate colleagues handed a billcriminalizing “grownup cabaret leisure” in public or the place it might be seen by kids. The invoice outlined such leisure as together with “adult-oriented” performances by strippers, go-go dancers or “male or feminine impersonators.” The Home of Representatives will weigh its model of the invoice on Thursday.

A primary offense can be a misdemeanor crime, and a subsequent offense a felony, carrying a sentence of between one and 6 years in jail.

Tennessee, like different states, already has public indecency and obscenity legal guidelines that ban excessively violent or sexual performances in entrance of minors, whatever the performer’s gender. Drag performances sometimes don’t contain nudity or stripping.

Peppermint, a drag performer who rose to fame on “Drag Race,” mentioned anti-drag payments have been simply the newest in an extended historical past of anti-LGBT laws that’s premised on false, harmful slurs towards homosexual and trans individuals: that they’re “grooming” kids or looking for to sexually exploit them.

“It is a straw man, it is a boogie monster, it is not likely an actual factor, so that they make up tales,” she mentioned. “The very first thing they do is goal us, dehumanize us, villainize us, after which they cross laws towards us.”

As a trans girl, Peppermint mentioned she would hesitate going to Tennessee ought to the invoice turn out to be legislation, saying trans performers even when not doing drag may be accused of being a male or feminine impersonator, phrases not outlined within the statute.

In recent times, drag has turn out to be more and more seen. Drag queens have starred in fast-food and automobile commercials. Eating places arrange all-ages drag brunches, with performers entertaining diners. Established in 2015, Drag Story Hour, by which costumed drag performers learn to kids, has expanded to a minimum of 20 states.

There was a backlash, too. Drag Story Hour particularly has turn out to be a goal for Republican lawmakers and conservative Christian teams, and the Proud Boys, a violent far-right group, have protested towards libraries and different host venues across the nation.

Drag performers say they’re simply as in a position to tailor their act to their viewers as different artists, like an actor who may seem in each a sexually express R-rated film and in a kids’s film.

“Drag is greatest identified for humor and for glamour: We’re speaking about individuals lip-syncing to pop songs and dancing round in elaborate costumes,” Lynne Pervis, a Tennessee courts administrator who has typically accomplished drag, testified in opposition to the invoice at a committee listening to. “Seeing a drag queen does not make a child homosexual or trans, however it could possibly assist queer youngsters who’re struggling so that there is hope of with the ability to in the future freely specific themselves.”

Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; modifying by Paul Thomasch and Josie Kao

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.

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Tennessee

Titans RB Out vs. Texans

Published

3 hours ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

The Tennessee Titans are finishing up their practice runs before facing the Houston Texans in Week 12, but there is a key player on the offense who won’t be making the trip to the Lone Star State.

According to team reporter Jim Wyatt, running back Tyjae Spears has been ruled out for the team’s game against the Texans as he has yet to clear the league’s concussion protocol.

Spears, a second-year pro out of Tulane, has been bit many times by the injury bug this season. The Week 12 contest will mark Spears’ fourth game missed this season.

So far this season, Spears has ran the ball 43 times for 161 yards and a touchdown.

With Spears out, starting running back Tony Pollard will continue to have a bulk of the carries while Julius Chestnut and Josh Kelley handle backup duties.

Also out for the Titans is offensive tackle Leroy Watson IV. Linebacker Jack Gibbens and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed are also ruled out on the injury report, but both of them will be placed on injured reserve.

Kickoff between the Titans and Texans is set for 12 noon CT on Sunday inside NRG Stadium.

Make sure you bookmark Tennessee Titans on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!

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Tennessee must see through Gov. Bill Lee’s new try at expanding school vouchers | Opinion

Published

10 hours ago

November 22, 2024

Press Room

Tennessee must see through Gov. Bill Lee’s new try at expanding school vouchers | Opinion

Vouchers are the school’s choice, not school choice.
Vouchers allow discrimination on special needs kids and any family who doesn’t fit the school’s “values.”

Caleb Hemmer
| Guest columnist

As expected, Gov. Bill Lee and his Republican supermajority in the legislature have filed their latest version of a statewide voucher proposal.

Once again, this new version is jam-packed with all kinds of seemingly nice things tacked on to try and distract people from the fact that this is all a scam designed to defund public education. Lee and his voucher scammers want you to pay attention to the long overdue teacher raises and the newly-dedicated funding source for school construction projects promised in the bill.

But let’s face it − if they were really serious about the proposals, they would have already done them. They wouldn’t have to tie them to a bait-and-switch scheme to designed to undermine public education and make out-of-state billionaire voucher backers happy.

Vouchers aren’t improving student school test scores

Here’s what’s underneath all the pretty packaging. Here’s what Governor Lee is not telling you about his voucher scam:

First of all, Lee wants you believe that he wants to expand vouchers statewide because of the success of the pilot program. However, the pilot program is not a proven success.

In fact, Lee’s own handpicked education commissioner had to admit before the Senate Education Committee this past January that the academic scores of the students in the voucher program, well, in her own words: “aren’t anything to write home about.”

In fact, according to the Department of Education’s annual report on the pilot program, the “exceeded expectations” scores for the state’s participating Education Savings Accounts schools only grew by an average of 0.4% in math and 1.2% in English Language Arts − and far less than the margins of public schools.

So since, the test scores aren’t dramatically improving, the governor wants to direct your attention to how the parents currently enrolled the program are satisfied with it. But again, let’s look at who those parents really are.

Vouchers do not cover the cost of the average private school

The average price of a private school in Nashville is estimated to cost around $12,000. In Memphis, it’s a little under $10,500. So, if you wanted to send to your child to a private school, you’re still going to have to be able pay thousands of additional dollars a year just for tuition.

That doesn’t include transportation or any other needs.

So, the people Lee claims he really wants to help − the working people who are struggling to put food on the table − are still priced out.

For example, according to a 2023 Time magazine article, in Arizona more than 75% of new voucher applicants had never actually attended public school before and not to mention the uncontrolled $1.4 billion hole vouchers caused in Arizona’s budget.

Vouchers leave out the most vulnerable students

Finally, as the governor gives out these “entitlement” payments to families that can already afford it, our public schools get further left behind.

Private schools get to pick their students, meaning that many students are excluded, including the most vulnerable who need the most help.

Vouchers end up excluding most disadvantaged students because they simply aren’t desirable for many private schools. That includes students with disabilities who use Individualized Education Plans, which this bill expressively says private schools don’t have to continue.

Vouchers are the school’s choice, not school choice.

Vouchers allow discrimination on special needs kids and any family who doesn’t fit the school’s “values.”

I would urge people to not be fooled by all of the shiny bells and whistles attached to this new voucher scam bill. Don’t be fooled by the words the governor is saying − take a good, hard look at what he’s not telling you.

Vouchers aren’t good education policy or conservative; it’s just a scam to defund your local school to align to a misguided political ideology.

State Rep. Caleb Hemmer, D-Nashville, represents District 59 (part of Davidson County) in the Tennessee General Assembly.

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Watch: Gretchen Walsh Cracks NCAA Record in 100 Butterfly (Tennessee Invite Day 2 Race Videos)

Published

19 hours ago

November 21, 2024

Press Room

Watch: Gretchen Walsh Cracks NCAA Record in 100 Butterfly (Tennessee Invite Day 2 Race Videos)

2024 Tennessee Invite

The third day of the 2024 Tennessee Invite saw lots of action, with the unique setup of the meet, the A-finals were contested in a 1-on-1 format that brought many fans to their feet and proved to bring an extra layer of excitement to the meet. UVA’s Gretchen Walsh built on that excitement to continue her record-breaking streak, shattering her own American, US Open, and NCAA Record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 47.35.

Even though the day might be over, you can relive all of the action with the race videos below. Courtesy of the University of Virginia.

WOMEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY- TIMED FINALS

NCAA Record: 1:31.73, Virginia- 2023
2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:36.24
2025 NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 1:36.76

Virginia A- 1:32.58 A
Tennessee A- 1:34.35 A
Virginia B- 1:35.89
Tennessee B- 1:37.94
Kentucky A- 1:39.66
Kentucky B- 1::41.35

Race Video:

MEN’S 200 MEDLEY RELAY- TIMED FINALS

NCAA Record: 1:20.15, Florida- 2024
2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 1:23.62
2025 NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 1:23.90

Tennessee A- 1:21.71 A
Tennessee B- 1:25.31
Kentucky A- 1:26.75
Kentucky B- 1:27.48
Virginia A- DQ
Virginia B- DQ

Race Video:

WOMEN’S 100 FLY – FINALS

~~NCAA Record: 47.42, Gretchen Walsh (UVA) – 2024~~ 47.35, Gretchen Walsh (UVA)- 2024
2025 NCAA ‘A’ Cut: 50.52
2025 NCAA ‘B’ Cut: 53.34
2024 NCAA Cutline: 51.88