Tennessee’s New Law Bolsters the Case That Anti-drag Laws Are Anti-democratic, Discriminatory and Unconstitutional On March 2, 2023, Tennessee became the first state to enact a law restricting drag performances. This law is part of a larger push by Republican lawmakers in numerous states to restrict or eliminate events like drag shows and drag story hours. These legislative efforts have been accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric – not grounded in fact – about the need to protect children from “grooming” and sexually explicit performances. Such rhetoric reveals that those seeking to restrict drag performances sometimes don’t understand what drag is or…
Author: Mark Satta
Mark Satta, Wayne State University
Mark is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from Purdue University and a JD from Harvard Law School. Mark specializes in epistemology, philosophy of language, applied philosophy of law, and First Amendment Law. His work has appeared in Philosophical Studies, Analysis, Synthese, Episteme, the Buffalo Law Review, the Harvard Law & Policy Review, and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, among others.