Actors’ Equity Association has condemned Tennessee’s new legislation restricting drag performance, urging theaters in the state to “join us in rejecting it entirely and lobbying for its elimination.”
The union, which represents actors and stage managers in live theater, also said it is “monitoring the progress of similarly dystopian laws in other states.”
Tennessee recently became the first state to enact a law explicitly targeting drag shows, criminalizing performances that take place in public or where they could be seen by children.
The joint statement condemning the law was made by Equity President Kate Shindle and Executive Director Al Vincent, Jr. Equity had released a statement on January 27 condemning the growing number of attacks on transgender people “often framed as attacks on drag performance.”
According to today’s statement, the union is currently engaged in outreach efforts to Equity theater across Tennessee to ensure the safety of national theatrical touring companies making stops in the state. Equity says it is working closely with the Broadway League – the trade organization that represents theater owners and producers – on the outreach.
“Culture wars are not bloodless, and they are rarely isolated,” Equity says. “Escalating rhetoric can quickly lead to unsafe conditions. Right now, the harm in Tennessee is focused on both personal and performance-based gender identity. We will not tolerate gender-based threats or violence.”
Equity is encouraging drag artists and transgender, nonbinary or gender nonconforming actors and stage managers who feel at risk to contact their union reps immediately.
In addition, the union asks theater employers seeking “carveouts” to the law for their own productions to instead join efforts to reject the law entirely.
“We will not stand quietly by while our traditions or our work – in shows like Peter Pan, Hairspray, Chicago, Rent, Angels in America and too many more to name – are reclassified as obscenity by ridiculous politicians,” the statement reads.
Read the entire statement below: