WASHINGTON DC, USA – A federal judge in Memphis, Tennessee, on Friday, March 31, temporarily blocked a law restricting drag performances in public from going into effect, saying it was likely “vague and overly-broad” in its restriction of speech.
“At this point, the court finds that the statute is likely both vague and overly-broad,” US District Judge Thomas Parker, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, said in a ruling granting a temporary restraining order. Lee had said the law would protect children from being “potentially exposed to sexualized entertainment, to obscenity.”
The Tennessee bill was part of an upswing in recent months in Republican efforts to regulate the conduct of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.