Tennessee

Tennessee takes lead in Republican effort to restrict drag shows

Published

1 year 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

Tennessee first SEC team with regular-season titles in men’s basketball, baseball, softball in same season

Published

7 hours ago

May 20, 2024

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Tennessee first SEC team with regular-season titles in men’s basketball, baseball, softball in same season

Tennessee athletics are sitting on the Rocky Top, indeed.

The Vols have accomplished major history this season, becoming the first SEC school to win the regular season championship in men’s basketball, baseball and softball in the same season. The Lady Vols are the No. 3 seed and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Super Regionals this weekend in softball, while the baseball team is the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, which kicks off Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama.

REQUIRED READING: Why it’s special for Tennessee softball seniors to lead Lady Vols back to NCAA super regional

Tennessee clinched the men’s basketball regular season championship on March 6 with a road victory over South Carolina, its first outright regular season championship since the 2006-07 season. On May 3, Tennessee softball defeated Kentucky in Knoxville to clinch its second straight SEC regular season title. The Vols went on to lose in the quarterfinals.

Following a sweep of South Carolina over the weekend, Tennessee baseball clinched a share of the SEC regular-season championship with Kentucky. It was the second time in three years the Vols won at least a share of the conference championship. They are the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and are currently projected as a No. 2 national seed in the NCAA Tournament by D1Baseball, entering last weekend.

Here’s a look at how each team performed this season:

Tennessee men’s basketball

Tennessee men’s basketball advanced to the Elite Eight in 2023-24, losing to eventual runner-up Purdue. The Vols have qualified for the NCAA Tournament for four straight seasons under coach Rick Barnes.

Final record: 27-9, 14-4 SEC
Season finish: Lost to Purdue in Elite Eight
SEC regular season titles: 11

Tennessee softball

The Lady Vols won their second straight conference regular season championship and the third in program history, all led by coach Karen Weekly. Tennessee swept through the Knoxville Regional to advance to its 13th Super Regional.

Record: 43-10, 19-5 SEC
SEC regular season titles: Three
WCWS ranking: No. 3 overall seed
Next up: No. 14 seed Alabama in Knoxville Super Regional

Tennessee baseball

Tennessee baseball swept South Carolina, while rival Kentucky dropped its finale to Vanderbilt for the two schools to finish with a share of the regular season championship. The Vols ― led by coach Tony Vitello ― earned the No. 1 seed after taking two of three regular-season games against the Wildcats in Lexington, Kentucky, earlier this season.

Record: 46-10, 22-8 SEC
SEC regular season titles: Five
Next up: Winner of the No. 8-No. 9 matchup in SEC Tournament

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Tennessee

Heartbreak for Tennessee High, falling 5-1 to Gibbs to end their season

Published

14 hours ago

May 20, 2024

Press Room

Heartbreak for Tennessee High, falling 5-1 to Gibbs to end their season

BRISTOL, Tenn. (WCYB) — Sunday was the final day to punch tickets to Murfreesboro, with Tennessee High softball looking to return to the state tournament with a win over Gibbs.

Spending the Sunday at Rotary Park, it was the Lady Eagles of Gibbs striking first with an RBI-Double from Lacey Keck in the top of the first.

Tennessee High at the plate in the bottom of the inning, the Vikings looked for a spark and it was provided by Addie Wilhoit with a stand-up double.

Unable to move the runners around, the Vikings bac on the field and it would be Carly Compton settling in on the mound and collecting strikeout after strikeout.

Handling business in the top of the inning, it was Compton providing her own run support with a solo shot to even the game up in the bottom of the fourth.

Story of the day was stranded runners as Tennessee High came up short, fighting hard but falling 5-1 to close out their season.

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Tennessee

Why it’s special for Tennessee softball seniors to lead Lady Vols back to NCAA super regional

Published

21 hours ago

May 19, 2024

Press Room

Why it’s special for Tennessee softball seniors to lead Lady Vols back to NCAA super regional

Kiki Milloy kicked into another gear when Tennessee softball coach Karen Weekly waved her home Sunday.

The senior outfielder sprinted down the third baseline to beat the throw from left field. Milloy dove, sliding headfirst across home plate – safe.

She rose to her knees to smack the ground as she screamed in celebration. Milloy turned towards the field at Sherri Parker Lee Stadium as she stood up, yelling again for good measure as she put the Lady Vols up by three runs.

Rylie West, who was on deck when Zaida Puni hit the RBI-single, came up to Milloy to join the celebration.

West and Milloy are the only two players left from Tennessee’s 2021 team. They’re the only ones left who felt the pain of back-to-back exits in the NCAA regionals on their home field. They’re two of the biggest reasons it hasn’t happened since.

West hit a two-RBI double right after Milloy scored, and by then, the win was well within their grasp. West followed it with a solo home run in the fifth, and No. 3 Tennessee (43-10) won 6-0 over Virginia (34-20) to claim the Knoxville Regional and advance to the super regionals for the second year in a row.

Two straight years of elation, made even sweeter by the two years before that ended in heartbreak.

“(I’m) just super proud that … we can end our careers differently than how we started them,” West said.

Puni, who transferred to Tennessee from Oklahoma ahead of the 2022 season, called the early exit her first season at UT “heartbreaking.”

“So, we made a commitment to never having that feeling again,” Puni said.

The Lady Vols will host No. 14 Alabama (36-17) in the super regionals. The best-of-three series will start Friday.

Weekly was already getting emotional after the Lady Vols run-ruled Virginia on Saturday. She fought back tears in the dugout as soon as the game ended.

“When they go out and play with so much joy and so much competitiveness and so much passion … They were just locked in and just really, really enjoying competing, and that’s what makes me the happiest,” Weekly said. “Usually wins come with that, but really, that’s what I want them to strive for every day, is just to go out there every day and compete their hearts out.”

Tennessee was dominant in all three victories, not conceding a single run. The Lady Vols outscored opponents 21-0 over 19 innings and hit .329. Karlyn Pickens and Payton Gottshall held opposing hitters to a .109 average and combined for 24 strikeouts.

MORE: Rylie West’s dad saw potential that led to Tennessee softball career. But first he told her to quit

The three-game shutout was the first thing Weekly pointed out when she met with the team after Sunday’s win.

“That’s huge. I doubt that’s being done in any other regional in the country,” Weekly said. “I think it takes just a big weight off these guys’ shoulders as hitters, knowing that our pitchers … they both have the mindset that my job is to keep a zero on the board until our offense can figure things out and get runs up for us. I would imagine they’re a whole lot of fun to play behind.”

Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.

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