Drag queens take on Tennessee bill seeking to classify shows as 'adult cabaret' trends now
Tennessee drag queens are taking on a state bill that will ban their performances in the presence of children.
The bill, proposed by Republican senator Jack Johnson in November, aims to restrict where drag events can take place so that children are not exposed to sexually explicit material.
Veronika Electronika, a drag queen at Nashville's 5 Points Diner and Bar - which hosts a popular drag brunch - called the legislative effort, Senate Bill 3, subjective and a hit to the LGBTQ community.
'If that law passes, I would be committing a potential felony,' Veronika told NBC News. 'I don't know who will be the drag police to judge whether my performance was adult-oriented.'
The bill follows the release of footage from a drag event at a local college where kids were seen handing dollar bills to stage performers.
Veronika Electronika, a drag queen at Nashville's 5 Points Diner & Bar, called the Tennessee bill 'subjective' and a hit to the LBGTQ community
Nashville's 5 Points Diner and Bar where Electronika works and performs at a popular brunch
The Senate bill refers to drag events as 'adult cabaret performances,' and is filed under 'obscenity and pornography.'
If passed, it 'creates an offense for a person who engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult.'
Advocates for the drag community argue that the acts are an art form similar to dance forms that are not considered too sexual for children.
Chris Saunders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, said that some drag moves and performances are similar to cheerleading
'What does it mean when someone who is dancing shakes their hips,' executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project Chris Saunders told NBC News.
'Cheerleaders clearly do it. Dance teams clearly do it. If a drag queen does it, does that suddenly make it sexual?'
Saunders warned that the bill can be a danger to the LGBTQ community because it refers to drag performers as
