DRAG HIM

Full-Page Newspaper Ad Puts Tennessee Guv’s Drag Hypocrisy on Display

“This kid enjoyed drag. Guess what happened to him? He’s our governor,” the ad paid for by the Human Rights Campaign reads.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee may want people to ignore his high school drag outfit in light of signing discriminatory anti-drag laws, but a new ad in The Tennessean won’t let him or the people of his state forget. The ad, paid for by the Human Rights Campaign, takes up a full page in the newspaper, showing the recently leaked photo of Bill Lee in drag in high school. “This kid enjoyed drag. Guess what happened to him? He’s our governor,” the ad reads, before calling Lee out for passing “more anti-LGBTQ+ legislation than any other state.” After the photo leaked, a spokesperson for Lee admitted to The Daily Beast that the photo is of the governor. The governor said it was just a “lighthearted” school tradition, and has nothing to do with the drag he’s banning. However, the law itself seeks to claim drag is sexual and shouldn’t be seen or done around children—which contradicts his own “lighthearted school tradition.” The Human Rights Campaign said its goal with the ad is to point out the governor’s hypocrisy and disingenuous discrimination of LGBTQ people. “It’s time for Gov. Lee to hear loud and clear that Tennesseans are tired of the political theater, and that discrimination and hypocrisy have no place in Tennessee,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a press release.