Texas band protests Tennessee drag law by wearing dresses onstage

MARYVILLE, Tenn — A Dallas-based band has been incomes nationwide consideration for its reaction to the rustic’s first on-the-books law limiting drag presentations.

Last Thursday, the governor of Tennessee signed into law a invoice that claims “male or female impersonators” now fall beneath the “adult cabaret” designation along side topless dancers, go-go dancers, unique dancers and strippers. 

The law additionally prohibits grownup cabaret performances from happening on public belongings or in anywhere the place minors could be provide, and it threatens performers with misdemeanor fees for breaking the principles — and even legal fees for repeat offenses.

While that law used to be nonetheless being mentioned as a invoice, the Texas country-punk band Vandoliers — who discovered themselves in Tennessee whilst they have been traveling in beef up in their 2022-released, self-titled album — already made the decision to turn cohesion to drag performers and the world LGBTQ+ neighborhood by wearing dresses throughout their live performance at The Shed in Maryville, Tennessee.

It simply so took place that the governor signed the invoice into law hours earlier than the Vandoliers’ live performance used to be set to start out.

Vandoliers multi-instrumentalist Cory Graves tells WFAA that it used to be initially his thought to put on a get dressed throughout the display as his personal act of cohesion. But as soon as the remainder of the band stuck wind of Graves’ deliberate non-public protest, they briefly determined to enroll in in at the effort with him. 

“Whenever I told our bass player, ‘I’m gonna do this,’ he was like, ‘That’s a good idea,'” Graves mentioned. “And then I told our guitar player, and he was like, ‘I’m doing it too.’ And then our fiddle player’s like, ‘I’m doing it too!'”

It wasn’t lengthy earlier than all six Vandoliers have been on board.

Lead Vandoliers vocalist Joshua Fleming mentioned status up for the marginalized is not the rest out of the peculiar for the band. Still, not one of the Vandoliers anticipated their display of cohesion to draw a lot further consideration outdoor of the venue, let on my own in finding them featured in Rolling Stone.

“I’m really involved with [the] LGBTQIA+ community,” Fleming mentioned. “We have a lot of friends [in that community]; I’ve played with a lot of bands from that community. And, to me, it seemed very important and something that we wanted to stand by.”

Before their Thursday display, the gang spent spent some day off from the street to buy dresses in 3 antique stores round Asheville, North Carolina. They became to their excursion supervisor and the shop house owners to determine the most productive dresses for his or her frame sorts, they usually wanted the entire assist they might get. As Fleming put it, six guys from a country-punk band making an attempt to determine their sizes in the midst of a get dressed retailer used to be a one thing to look — “like a bull in a China shop,” he mentioned.

“The [last] shop owner was really, really kind,” Fleming persisted. “All the patrons in there were giggling ’cause we’re all trying on dresses. Everyone was laughing, giggling and having a great time.”

The giggles stored going thru to the Thursday night time exhibit itself, when the six males of the band walked out on level, wearing dresses at a Harley-Davidson-sponsored venue in rural Tennessee because the refrain of Shania Twain’s “Man! Feel Like A Woman!” performed overhead at the public-address machine.

From the safety guards to the opposite bands behind the scenes to the crowds out in entrance of them, the Vandoliers mentioned everybody within the venue seemed to be having a good time. More than simply mere a laugh, even though, Fleming additionally famous that the band rearranged its set record on the display to emphasise their stances in opposition to gender norms — adjustments their lovers stuck onto immediately.

“The point we were trying to make was that it’s just clothing,” Fleming mentioned. “It’s not a sexual act. It shouldn’t even be a law — because there’s no victim.”

Out of the 80 other people or so other people within the target audience, Fleming mentioned he realized after the set that about 4 other people left throughout the display. 

But the venue did not appear to thoughts; relatively, the membership’s proprietor shook the band’s fingers afterwards and invited them again for long run presentations.

Support alongside the ones strains persisted even after the display, too, because the band won non-public grateful messages from shut pals and public presentations of beef up on social media. 

In the face of that overwhelming beef up, Graves mentioned the band has best won about 5 unfavorable emails for his or her movements in Tennessee.

“It’s been affecting people in ways we didn’t think it would,” Graves mentioned. “We thought we were doing something for 80 people in a room, and it blew up where we’re getting thousands of messaging saying ‘You touched my life’ in some way.”

Their effort may be main to modify past the symbolic. 

Since that Thursday display, the band has been the use of its Vandoliers social media accounts to public sale off the dresses they wore on level with the objective of donating the proceeds to the Tennessee-area LGBTQ+ neighborhood organizations Knox Pride Center and the Tennessee Equality Project.

That public sale closed early Monday afternoon, with the proceeds from the gross sales totaling $2,277.69 in donations. 

The ultimate bids for each and every dressed ranged from $275 to $512. 

“I guess we did the right thing by putting on a dress,” Fleming mentioned. “It’s just a small thing that impacted so many people, and it just proves that you can do a little thing every day, and it’s going to have a positive impact on the world.”

Editor’s Note: The following video used to be uploaded in June 2022