District attorney’s threat to drag performers doubles attendance of Pride event

Rupaul DragCon 2019 – Los Angeles
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The attendance at Blount Pride Fest doubled from last year after a Tennessee attorney general threatened to prosecute the event’s drag performers.

Blount County District Attorney Ryan Desmond issued a letter last Tuesday notifying Pride organizers and local law enforcement that his office planned to “ethically and justly prosecute” anyone violating Tennessee’s drag ban, also known as the Adult Entertainment Act.

The law forbids “male or female impersonators” to participate in any “adult cabaret performance” “on public property” that can be viewed by a minor. The definition of “adult cabaret performance” includes any onstage act that “appeals to a prurient interest.”

A federal judge found the definition so “vague and substantially overbroad” that he declared the law unconstitutional in June. However, Desmond and other local attorneys general argued that the judge’s ruling only applied to…

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