Yo La Tengo carried out in drag at their present in Nashville on Monday evening in protest of the lately handed Tennessee legislation that restricts drag performances in public. As The Tennessean studies, the band’s Ira Kaplan and James McNew got here out wearing drag throughout the second half of their set on the Basement East.
Though the band didn’t explicitly handle the brand new laws on stage, it’s the most recent in a line of music-world acknowledgements of the ban. At the start of the month, Bonnaroo — which takes place Manchester, TN — issued a press release in response, saying that the competition “will remain a sanctuary for those freedoms and Bonnaroovians will see no changes in programming or celebration of self-expression at the festival.” And later this week, Hayley Williams, Jason Isbell, Julien Baker, and extra will carry out at a profit live performance for Tennessee LGBTQIA+ organizations.
The invoice, which is about to enter impact on April 1, is a part of a collection of laws signed into legislation by Governor Bill Lee that additionally points a ban on gender-affirming take care of minors. The legislation limiting drag prohibits “adult-oriented entertainment” to happen on public property, limiting it to age-restricted venues, and particularly mentions “male and female impersonators.”
Here are some photographs from the present:
Yo La Tengo are at present on tour in assist of their new album This Stupid World, and so they’ll play the identical venue in Nashville tonight (Tuesday, March 14).