Last night Federal Judge Thomas Parker declared that the anti-drag ‘Adult Entertainment Act’ in the state of Tennessee is “unconstitutional”.
The exact wording he used was: “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.”
He also said that he agreed that the law was passed “for the impermissible purpose of chilling constitutionally-protected speech.”
This is literally what I have been tweeting about for the last several weeks. Te vast majority of Democrats and moderates agree that there should be laws in place to protect children from sexualized drag shows, just like children should be protected from sexualized shows with straight people. It’s just that Conservatives have been passing laws that are overly broad and vague, meaning that instead of actually focusing on things that should be illegal, they make Americans questions what is and is not illegal.
This confusion makes matters worse, not better, and has a chilling effect on legal activity since the laws are unclear.
Let’s come up with a set of laws that clearly define what should and should not be permitted. The word “sexualized” or “harmful” mean different things to different people. Laws need to define each in detail.
