Tennessee residents have raised thousands-of-dollars for a massive electronic billboard showcasing the state’s Governor Bill Lee dressed as a woman in the wake of a bill that criminalized drag shows.
Using TikTok and GoFundMe, Zachary Heath Stamper of Bristol raised $61,395, as of Saturday and plans to spend some of it on the billboard in downtown Nashville as well as others around the city.
Stamper hopes the billboard will be on Lee’s route home and when he goes to church and said that he has also enlisted Tennessee drag fun to participate in the project.
In a video posted to TikTok Stamper said that he’s scouting possible sites aboard Nashville’s Big Drag Bus, one of the most popular party buses in a city known for them.
Tennessee residents have raised thousands-of-dollars for a massive electronic billboard showcasing the state’s Governor Bill Lee dressed as a woman in the wake of a bill that criminalized drag shows
The picture was taken for the 1977 yearbook from the annual ‘powderpuff’ event at Franklin High, in which girls dressed like boys and boys dressed like girls
‘Those drag queens are going to be on there with us as we go around picking out billboards,’ he said.
The huge electronic billboard on the route to Lee’s church will have the added benefit of a bible verse, Stamper explained.
Photos of the governor dressed in a short skirt and pears as a teenager in 1977 emerged after drag shows and transgender medical intervention for minors were banned in the state.
The picture was taken for the 1977 yearbook from the annual ‘powderpuff’ event at Franklin High, in which girls dressed like boys and boys dressed like girls.
Powderpuff events are common in high schools in the South, and Lee told reporters on Tuesday that it is ‘ridiculous’ to compare them to the drag shows.
Stamper first saw the cross-dressing governor photo on TikTok – the photo was discovered by a website called The Tennessee Holler.
‘Everybody kept posting we should put this on a billboard,’ he recalled. ‘I said, ‘If y’all all want to do that…’
He set up a GoFundMe page on Tuesday morning that had collected more than $1,500 within hours and by Wednesday Stamper woke up to $22,000 for the billboard cause, with sums continuing to rise.
‘I woke up Wednesday and it was $22,000,’ he said. ‘I just couldn’t believe it.’
The project is hoped to highlight the claimed hypocrisy of the governor who has claimed he passed the controversial laws to protect children in the state.
Using TikTok and GoFundMe, Zachary Heath Stamper of Bristol raised $61,395, as of Saturday and plans to spend some of it on the billboard in downtown Nashville as well as others around the city
Lee’s press secretary, Jade Byers, released a statement about the new law saying it ‘specifically protects children from obscene, sexualized entertainment.’
‘Any attempt to conflate this serious issue with lighthearted school traditions is dishonest and disrespectful to Tennessee families.’
Before the billboard campaign, Stamper launched a non-profit for foster kids citing that there are about 8,991 children without homes refuting the governor’s concern for the state’s youth.
‘We got kids sleeping on DCS floors and all [Lee] is worried about is banning drag shows,’ Stamper said.
‘Why are you spending all your time on this instead of foster care?’
Lee has signed a bill banning drag shows in public spaces, a measure that will likely force drag shows underground in Tennessee.
Other states across the country are proposing similar legislation.
Lee gave his signature just hours after the measure passed in the Senate Thursday afternoon.
In the same sitting, Lee signed a ban on gender-affirming health care for youth in the state.
The move means there is a total ban on all gender-affirming health care for kids in the state – including puberty blockers and hormone treatments.
The new medical legislation, which was fast-tracked by the Republican majority in the state, will take full effect this summer.
This means that any children in Tennessee who are currently on gender-affirming medication will have until March 31, 2024, to come off them.
The law, signed on Thursday, was written to ban medical treatment for the diagnosis of gender dysphoria – rather than prohibiting a particular drug or medication itself.
Lee has signed a bill banning drag shows in public spaces, a measure that will likely force drag shows underground in Tennessee
Gov Lee signed the bill, moving in into legislature, despite harsh criticisms and threats to sue from the likes of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Lee signed off on the legislation without issuing a statement or in a public ceremony.
In the weeks leading up to the law being signed, opinions on both sides were heard.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth argued that minors lack the maturity to make ‘life-altering’ medical decisions like taking gender affirming medication.
He said: ‘These treatments and procedures have a lifetime of negative consequences that are irreversible.’
It comes as the debate over the rights of America’s transgender people intensifies this year, with scores of Republican-led bills aimed at banning puberty blockers in front of state legislatures.
Some 100 bills have been proposed across 27 states aimed at stopping children from accessing hormone blocking drugs and other types of ‘gender-affirming care’, according to several groups and politicians who monitor the issue.
Other draft laws being debated in state legislatures cover everything from which pronouns can be used in classrooms, whether trans girls can play in trans sports teams and if trans people must use bathrooms that correspond to their birth sex.
Drag artist Vidalia Anne Gentry spoke out during a news conference held by the Human Rights Campaign to draw attention to anti-drag bills in the Tennessee legislature
They are being debated as trans people complain about battling prejudice in a fight for their survival, while parents of trans-identifying teens bemoan their kids being indoctrinated by online ideologues, some even encouraged by their teachers.
The Governors of South Dakota and Utah have already signed into law bans on trans procedures for kids that lawmakers approved earlier this year. Bills in Idaho, Missouri, Wyoming, and Texas seek to do the same.
Tennessee signed it into law on Thursday, March 3, 2023.
The bills are often opposed by Democrats. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre this week slammed the ‘450 and counting anti-LGBTQI+ bills’ as ‘cheap shots’ that would hurt a vulnerable group.