ACLU of Tennessee Threatens Suit Ahead of City’s Ordinance Banning Drag Shows

Ordinance Seeks to Classify Drag as ‘Adult Cabaret’

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Tennessee is threatening suit ahead of a vote on an ordinance banning drag shows in the city of Portland, Tennessee.

The group announced Friday that it had “sent a letter to the mayor and Board of Alderman of Portland, Tennessee, demanding that the city drop a proposed, unconstitutional ordinance that effectively bans drag shows.”

As HuffPost reported, “drag has recently become part of the nightlife in Portland, Tennessee, a town of about 12,000 just outside Nashville. Kyle and Raymond Guillermo, Jr. of Elite Productions have been holding drag nights at Envy, a Portland restaurant and bar since August.”

Following a sold-out show on September 5th, town officials began the notion of of classifying drag shows as a form of “adult-oriented business” that “may be erotic [in] nature.” Local measures prevent “adult-oriented business” within most of the city’s limits.

Guillermo told the Tennessean that the ordinance was a response to a drag show his company had organized  on August 12th, noting that afterwards he had received hate mail. “People are trying to get us out of Portland,” he said. “We are drag queens, we are not taking our clothes off. We are not cabaret.”

“Courts have held that government can impose some reasonable restrictions on adult entertainment,” the ACLU of Tennessee said in its statement. “However… artistic expression is not sexual or erotic in nature simply because it involves male or female impersonators and, therefore, it cannot be regulated like ‘adult-oriented businesses.’”

“The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and expression, no matter what you are wearing,” the chapter’s legal director Thomas H. Castelli said. “It’s discriminatory and unconstitutional to single out male and female impersonators in a bid to shut down their speech. If members of the city council are uncomfortable with the drag show, they do not need to attend the performance. But they can’t ban it.”

A copy of the letter sent to the mayor and Board of Alderman by the ACLU can be seen here. The vote is scheduled for tomorrow, September 18th.

Guillermo and co-owners Raymond Guillermo and Ronnie Carter are planning a rally at Portland’s City Hall ahead of the vote.

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