Blount Pride (Tennessee) Was Handed A Threat Letter, From A Local DA -- That DA Is Now Enjoined, By The USDC Tennessee (Eastern Dist.). Tangled Web Edition...

As the "Friends of George's" win against repression works its way through the Sixth Circuit appeal process, it has become clear that other local DAs (GOP, all) are sending threat letters (this time, out of Maryville -- claiming authority to arrest and criminally prosecute drag queens -- but only drag queens!) -- all to intimidate the organizers of various Pride events.

On Thursday, Blount Pride won an injunction against this local DA, in the federal district courts -- and now, that case will likely become part of the original one -- out of Memphis, from earlier this spring/summer.

We will keep you posted, as ever.

The result in either case doesn't even remotely seem in doubt: these purported laws violate the people's rights under the federal First and Fourteeth Amendments.

". . .This appeal calls on this Court to adjudicate whether Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act (“AEA”), Tenn. Code Ann. §§7-51-1401, et seq., is constitutional. Blount Pride, Inc. -- a non-profit organization formed to celebrate and advance the interests of LGBTQ+ people in Blount County, Tennessee -- and Matthew Lovegood, a drag performer (collectively, the “Intervenors”), seek to intervene to argue that it is not.

No other litigants are better suited to press that claim. In all of Tennessee, only the Intervenors have been specifically targeted with enforcement of the AEA’s criminal penalties, having received a threat letter from a district attorney just ten days ago for planning a Pride event that featured Matthew Lovegood’s drag performance. . . ."

And. . . in a recurring bit of delicious irony, this presents a very nice opportunity -- to re-run a 1977 picture of then football player / now GOP Gov. Bill Lee's (Franklin HS) past stint as. . . yep, a drag queen. See masthead, and at lower right. Cheers.

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