Tenn lawmaker says trans kids should look at themselves naked and that drag performers 'made him sick to his stomach'

Tenn lawmaker Paul Sherrell don't like trans kids or drag queens

Two pieces of bad news came from Tennessee on Tuesday evening:

Tennessee's Republican-dominant Legislature on Tuesday advanced a handful of proposals that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth and severely limit where drag shows can take place.

 . . . If enacted, doctors would be prohibited from providing gender-affirming care to anyone under the age of 18, including prescribing puberty blockers and hormones. However, the legislation includes exceptions that would allow doctors to perform these medical services if they're treating an abnormality or if the patient's care had begun prior to July 1, 2023 — which is when the ban is proposed to go into effect — and the doctor believes ending the care would harm the patient. 

. . . On Tuesday, the bill advanced out of a subcommittee. It still needs to clear additional committees and the GOP-controlled House and Senate chambers before it can be reviewed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who supports the legislation. 

 Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers also advanced legislation designed to limit where drag shows can take place by classifying them as an “adult cabaret performance.” The legislation doesn't explicitly include the words “drag show,” but instead the definition of adult cabaret in Tennessee's law would be expanded to include “male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers.” Prurient interest is not defined in the bill.

The religious right and its far-right allies claim  that these bills are necessary to "protect the children." Of course that's a lie which LGBTQ people have heard so many times just about every time the religious right and their allies in various legislatures try to pass bills curtailing our rights.

This time you don't have to take my word for it this time. Thanks to a legislator, Paul Sherrell, being honest for a change, we can see the hatred behind the fake concern:

Republican rep Paul Sherrell says “if you don’t know what you are go into the bathroom and take your clothes off”

He also said the drag performers “made him sick to his stomach”

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) January 31, 2023

 

The exact comment Sherrell made about bathrooms was directed towards trans boys and girls and is just as vile in its entire context:

"Maybe there is children listening ... Our preacher would say, 'If you don't know what you are, a boy or girl ... just go in the bathroom, take your clothes off and look in the mirror.'"

It's rather sad that someone who claims to be all about protecting kids can get away with being so flippant about the welfare of certain children simply because he is ignorant about their lives. They don't need to look at their genitals to know who they are. They already know it. Supportive parents know it. The medical community knows it.  The problem is people like Sherrell refuse to know it. They're already convinced that they know it all, either through their limited religious beliefs or warped idea of common sense. They're not prepared to listen because they've already decided that they won't listen. In reality, they don't care about trans children, only a bastardized version of children. That in itself it is bad, but consider the fact that people like Sherrell have legislative power to manipulate and warp the reality of trans kids until it fits the reality they think is valid. And they don't care if their actions make trans kids psychologically damaged as the so-called physical mutilations people like Sherrell conjure up as justifications for their anti-trans legislation.

And his comment about drag queens also has an additional vileness to it. Apparently this push to make limit drag show stems from an incident last year in which a video of a child touching the costume of an actress dressed as Disney's The Little Mermaid was taken out of context. The video was passed around on Twitter with certain provocateurs falsely claiming that the actress was actually a drag queen and was encouraging the little girl to "stroke his crotch."

As you can see, even though the truth came out, lawmakers like Sherrell are still determined to manipulate the incident to hinder drag shows. And not to protect kids, but because drag performers make Sherrell "sick to his stomach." 

This is not about protecting kids or the community. This is about Sherrell and people like him  exploiting  legislative power to validate their personal prejudices at the cost of people's rights and health.