Friends of George’s, an LGBTQ theater company at the Evergreen Theatre, has filed a suit against the state of Tennessee regarding what is being called the “reckless anti-drag law.”
The organization announced on its Instagram page that the bill “imperils the lives of drag performers and seeks to oppress queer culture state-wide.”
“We believe that the act of drag challenges traditional societal structures while also providing a medium to connect with others in a celebratory and avant-garde manner,” the statement said. “We refuse to sit silently in the shadows while the government attempts to strip away our right to free speech and expression.”
The post said the suit is filed against the state of Tennessee in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
The organization was founded in 2010, and according to Mark Campbell, president of Friends of George’s, is a drag-based theater company that hosts shows similar to Saturday Night Live, with lip-synch performances and occasional live vocals.
Drag has long been essential to the dramatic arts. Campbell says that in Shakespearean times, women were not allowed to perform in theaters, so men were cast in those roles.
Campbell says this bill is an attack on the LGBTQ community that considers drag an art form. With drag having such a heavy influence on theater, the bill has drawn criticism nationally as well, with groups like the Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), a labor union representing live theatrical performances, rejecting the law and “lobbying for its elimination.”
“We want to be extremely clear that performing artists across our country are protected from government overreach by the First Amendment,” AEA said in a statement. “For centuries performers have worn costumes that society deems inconsistent with the sex they were assigned at birth.”
Many worry that this law will affect performances of shows such as Hairspray, Kinky Boots, and Mrs. Doubtfire. Actors who play these roles would be considered “male or female impersonators,” who are classified under “adult cabaret performances.” The bill says that such performances cannot be on public property and cannot be viewed by anyone who is underage.
Campbell explained that the shows performed at Friends of George’s heavily feature drag performers, male and female.
“This is basically a First Amendment case and our right to self expression, trying to dictate how someone dresses,” said Campbell. “If I, as a grown man, were to dress in the same manner as the Grizz Girls, and give the exact same performance, my performance would be illegal and deemed harmful to children, while theirs wouldn’t.”
While Campbell understands that the majority of the Tennessee legislature voted to pass the bill, he said that he does not believe that this is reflective of Tennessee residents.
“I know a lot of conservative people. People who vote for Republican presidential candidates and Republican legislators and stuff, but a lot of those people come to our shows, and bring their kids occasionally” said Campbell. “I’ve spoken to those people, and they’re as appalled as I am. They’ve seen what we do, and the creativity that we put into it, and the causes that we support, and I just hope that everybody will talk to their friends, tell them about us, and what it’s really about, and the self expression that we put into it.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, and Lambda Legal, a national organization “committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people, and everyone living with HIV,” issued a statement where they have promised legal action against the Tennessee law that will prohibit gender affirming care for minors.
“We will not allow this dangerous law to stand,” said the statement. “We are dedicated to overturning this unconstitutional law and are confident the state will find itself completely incapable of defending it in court. We want transgender youth to know they are not alone and this fight is not over.”
Senate Bill 1 was recently signed into law by Governor Bill Lee on Thursday, March 2nd. The law will prohibit healthcare professionals from administering gender-affirming care to minors. This makes Tennessee the fourth state to ban this care for people under the age of 18.
This legislation will make gender affirming hormone therapy and puberty blockers inaccessible, and trans people in Tennessee will not have access to this care until they reach the age of 18. Similar restrictions have been made in states like Arkansas and Alabama.
A report entitled “LGBTQ Tennesseans: A Report of the 2021 Southern LGBTQ Experiences Survey,” released by the Campaign for Southern Equality in January 2023 defines gender affirming healthcare as “ an individualized experience for all trans and nonbinary people. There is no single surgery or standard path that all trans people access and each transgender person has their own unique needs related to gender affirming care.”
The report said that about 84 percent of transgender respondents from Tennessee said that “when they were under the age of 18, having access to gender-affirming care was important to their overall well-being.”
“Restrictive laws and policies related to gender affirming care can lead to increased stigma for transgender people, resulting in delays or avoidance in seeking necessary medical care, ultimately resulting in worse health outcomes for this population,” the study stated.
In response to the signing of the bill into law, Emma Chinn, co-author of LGBTQ+ Tennesseans, special projects coordinator at the Campaign for Southern Equality, and a master of public policy candidate at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, said that research states that “access to transgender-related healthcare is critical to the physical and mental health of transgender people and their ability to thrive in their daily lives.”
As the law does not go into effect until July 1, 2023, advocates are also offering resources and steps for families to take action now.
A resource guide provided by the ACLU of Tennessee, Inclusion TN, and Campaign for Southern Equality lists the following recommendations:
See current provider as soon as possible to discuss current needs and options for continued care;
If you and your family have been planning to pursue gender-affirming care, try to initiate care before July 1 when the law takes effect;
Fill current prescriptions with regard to gender-affirming medical care;
To view a list of trans-affirming providers in Southern states, please visit the Trans in the South guide at www.transinthesouth.org.
In 2010, Randall Hartzog and Jonathan Christian co-starred in Theatre Memphis’ La Cage aux Folles as Georges and Albin, a couple who’ve lived together happily for years in San Tropez. Twelve years later, the two actors, finally at the right age to play the middle-aged pair, have returned to these roles, now under the helm of director Cecelia Wingate.
The musical is derived from the 1973 play of the same name, turned 1978 French film, which was adapted into the 1996 American film The Birdcage, starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. In all its various forms, Georges and Albin’s son returns home with news that he is engaged. The catch: The prospective in-laws are an ultra-conservative bunch while Georges runs a drag nightclub, at which Albin is the star entertainer. As Georges and Albin try to impress their son’s love and her parents, madness and hilarity ensue.
“The fact is that it’s really funny,” Wingate says, “but at the end of the day, it’s a really beautiful and charming love story. A love story between family and who we call family.”
Though Theatre Memphis has performed this musical before, audiences can expect a fresh take, even with the same leads. The original telling is set in the ’70s, but this production is set today. “We wanted to show that things have changed a little bit since the ’70s, but there’s still [anti-LGBTQ] prejudice,” Wingate says. “We also knew it would open us up to different styles of choreography and color palette. … Visually, it’s going to be stunning. The choreography is really exciting.”
Another reason for change in era, Wingate explains, “Drag is so different today than it was in the ’70s.” From the hair to the makeup to the costuming, drag is even more elaborate these days. To that effect, the production brought on local drag performers Wednesday Moss (Austin Wood), Iris LeFluer (Joseph Grant), and Justin Allen Tate.
To purchase tickets or to view the full schedule of performances, go to theatrememphis.org or call (901) 682-8323. Evening performances will begin at 7:30 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m.
La Cage aux Folles, Theatre Memphis, 630 Perkins Extd., opens Friday, March 4, with performances through March 27, $35.
It’s been a cold week in Memphis. For many of us, ice storm 2022 brings back not-so-fond memories of 1994’s monster of a storm. But, with Valentine’s Day right around the corner and many of us (your editor included) in need of a distraction, we’re checking in with some of the Bluff City’s romantics. If these stories of love don’t warm your heart on a frigid February day, we’re not sure what will.
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Sheree Renée Thomas + Danian Darrell Jerry
“The night that I met Sheree, it was for a book-signing for Memphis Noir. And what had happened is that I had submitted a story to Memphis Noir, right? But my story didn’t get accepted, so I really didn’t wanna go to the book-signing,” says writer Danian Darrell Jerry on the fateful event that introduced him to Sheree Renée Thomas, a writer who had returned to her hometown after more than a decade in New York City and a stay at Millay Arts residency.
Lucky for both writers, Danian decided to attend the party at Crosstown’s StoryBoard space to support the writers included.
Sheree Renée Thomas and Danian Darrell Jerry found each other through their shared love of writing. (Photos: Justin Fox Burks)
“You know when I met Sheree … I don’t think she was really feelin’ me,” but Danian had an in. He had graduated from the creative writing MFA program at the University of Memphis, where he’d studied with fiction writer Cary Holladay. Holladay, who had mentored Danian and encouraged his literary pursuit, also introduced him to another writer, Arthur Flowers, a longtime mentor and friend to Sheree.
Danian’s connection to Flowers — and his striking looks — first caught her attention. “So he came, and I saw him. And he’s so sweet and so handsome. He has the most gorgeous eyes, right? So I was like, ‘Hmm, who is this? Who is this fine man comin’ in here?’ And then he mentioned one of my favorite people on the Earth, Arthur Flowers, author of Another Good Loving Blues … one of my favorite love stories, which is a blues story and a tribute to Memphis. Then he introduces me, in his way, to a person who would become not only one of my best friends, one of my dream partners and brainstormer of insane ideas and adventures, but also just an amazing person and a person I fell in love with!”
But the courtship wasn’t without a bit of conflict. Sheree admits she was apprehensive about a romantic relationship with Danian at first meeting and gently tried to keep a discerning distance despite initial attraction on both sides. “I tried to steer clear of dating writers. Part of it is because my younger years as a writer were in New York and I saw a bunch of nightmare stories about that. Especially for women writers,” she says. “A lot of times I would see the women’s careers — their writing — would get put aside. Sometimes it’s by choice, right? Like we’re on the outside looking in. But other times, it’s just male ego, and stuff, right? And it didn’t usually seem to work out.”
Photo: Justin Fox Burks
Protective of her fruitful and well-earned writing and editorial career, Sheree decided not to pursue a romantic relationship. The healthy skepticism kept the two from dating, but it didn’t keep them from seeing each other again at Memphis literary events, where their exchanges blossomed into friendship.
When Sheree decided to organize the first Memphis Afrofuturism festival, Black to the Future, in 2018, Danian was beside her, offering positive feedback that fueled her community-building vision. The readings and panels saw them working side-by-side to smooth any ruffles in programming logistics, both running to find cables and empower emerging writers wherever necessary. The rush and success of the event, says Sheree, replanted “the seed,” demonstrating Danian’s optimism and reliability.
Over the course of three years, they fortified the bond through creative projects and a sincere mutual support that surprised them both.
“He was very mature and very whole. … When things would go well for me, he would be rooting for me — one of my biggest cheerleaders,” says Sheree. Danian’s ability to be helpful and happy for her successes and understanding of her losses in the writing industry was unlike the competitive, egoistic male writer stereotype that caused her apprehension.
Likewise, Danian was amazed.
“She just has this air about her that’s kind of, like, regal. So when I first met her, I didn’t think that — I thought she was kind of out of my league. I was surprised that she was interested in me,” Danian says. “She lifted me up so much. It shocked me when she looked at me like I was on her level.” Sheree found this easy to do as a fan of Danian’s writing and a crusader for the exceptionally talented yet humble Memphis creative community — a unique complex that often keeps deserving artists from taking leaps of faith into publishing and other career-building chances.
Finally, a partnership beyond book business was born — where else? The Southern Festival of Books. Sheree was scheduled to speak on a panel, and Danian made the three-hour drive “like Batman,” says Sheree. “I was calling him the Transporter” because she was worried about running late. They filled the trip with conversation and adrenaline, leaving them newly close on arrival. When it was time to read, Sheree was a bit nervous to present a piece she’d never read publicly before, and Danian sat in the front row, expressing his confidence in her.
“So we did this reading, and I did this story. And Danian was in the front row, and he has such a peaceful face. There’s just something about — he made us all feel like he was there just for us, and he was rooting for us. It was just a magical time. I think that successful experience, the adrenaline rush of him driving like Batman all the way down there, and then us just vibing about books and art and music and the crazy publishing industry and the weird politics in Memphis … all the things that we were talking about, I think that just kind of set it off. And we’ve been inseparable ever since!”
These days, the compatible two can be found creating together on a number of present and upcoming projects.
“We do a lot of things together, but I’ll say this, it’s good to be with someone who just gets you. We watched the last season of Game of Thrones together. … It’s good to have someone very close to you to share those kinds of moments,” says Danian.
Sheree adds, “It’s a big difference when you feel like you are where you’re supposed to be.”
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Allyson Blair Coley + Kori Coley
When the stars aligned the second time for Allyson and Kori Coley, Kori recalls, “And I walk into Garibaldi’s, and I see her at the cash register, and I’m like, ‘Oh, god, it’s that young girl that has a crush on me.’”
This was the second time workplaces had brought them together — the first when Kori and Allyson worked at neighboring establishments in Cooper-Young. The two had a brief introduction through a mutual friend, when Kori noticed the unusual yellow of Allyson’s eyes and Allyson spotted the film roll tattoo on Kori’s arm — an image she’d wanted herself but didn’t have. After learning of their seven-year age gap, Kori withdrew, and the two didn’t see each other again until Kori walked into the pizza joint to work.
Kori Coley noticed the yellow specks in Allyson’s eyes when she first met her as a co-worker. Now, the two are married. (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)
“And I was just having none of her at all, but everybody there who I had been friends with loved her,” says Kori of the chance encounter. Despite their age difference, the two became friends on the job and spent two years growing closer. Allyson ended things with her long-distance boyfriend back home in Arizona. Kori quit her job and headed elsewhere so that they could resume a serious romantic relationship without the secrecy or allure of an illicit workplace fling.
The two continued to compromise.
Kori says, “I was 30 at the time that we got together, and she was 23. So I had this, like, timeline of how a relationship should go. I had a clear idea of what I wanted out of a relationship, and I was very honest about it.”
Photo: Justin Fox Burks
Allyson admits to being less clear on what she wanted and how to articulate it at that point in life. Deep-feeling but reticent, she says, “I don’t necessarily know how to talk about my feelings and communicate them. I didn’t do that a lot as a kid. But Kori loves communication, and it’s aggravating, but it’s made us stronger in the way she makes me talk about my feelings. If I’m not ready to, she’s patient, and she’s like, ‘Well, here’s all of mine.’”
The two laugh at their differences: Allyson wielding power tools and Kori melting at romance stories. Kori loving technology and Allyson prizing her old cameras, with which she shoots on film. Regardless of who kills the spiders (it’s Allyson), the pair agrees on the big pictures as a unified front:
“We’re opposite, but in the ways that we are the same, it’s all the important, meaningful core values,” says Allyson.
Kori adds, “I love that we’re opposite on so many things because that makes us our own thing — something we can put our passion into without having this competitiveness of ‘Are you better at this one thing than I am?’ We love different things, so we don’t have that at all. And I think it’s been very magical for us.”
Allyson: “You encourage me to do all the things I don’t think I can do.”
Kori: “Yep, you do the same for me.”
Perhaps most central to the Coley couple’s shared beliefs is their dedication to family — both their own and each other’s. Kori describes the first serious talk the two had with a glimpse into the future most couples don’t have early on.
“We’re both the children of single mothers. Our mothers are very important to us, and one of the first conversations we had when we got together was that our mothers will probably live with us someday.”
Both Allyson and Kori have grown into strongly directing their energy into a loving family they both can enjoy. For Allyson, the impulse didn’t always come naturally — largely because it wasn’t always possible. Allyson grew up in Arizona with few family members around. In moving to Memphis, she was taken underwing by her aunt who was openly gay and active in the community as a board member for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center and as the owner of feminist bookstore Meristem. Her loving influence touched and inspired Allyson. Then both her parents moved to town, her father remarrying in his late 60s.
“My dad being the Southern man that he is, I didn’t really know how he would take it,” Allyson says. “So, yeah, for a while it was hard when he would say, ‘This is her friend’ when he would introduce us. Now my dad — like this is his daughter, and Kori didn’t have a father around at all, so it’s just beautiful [to see him] accept Kori and call her and sing her happy birthday on her birthday. He came to our wedding. It meant a lot, and it means a lot for him to accept us,” says Allyson, adding that her newish stepmom also wholeheartedly supports the coupling, having both over to their home in Covington to watch football with her and her twin sister, the four women discussing plays while dad scrolls his cell phone.
Of Allyson’s mom, Kori says, “Her mom was resistant at first toward us because she’s a Christian and she’s had this idea. But I was like, ‘No, this woman is about to be my best friend.’ I love her like she’s my own mother.”
Allyson and Kori’s mom are also considerably close, despite Kori’s mom’s shyness. Allyson shares a sweet illustration of their bond: “I had an art show for my 30th birthday at Otherlands. Kori’s mom showed up to my art show in, like, an alien mask and walked around. … She wanted to support me but didn’t want to meet anybody or have to have to talk to anybody, and Kori walked her around and she left. And it was the most beautiful, absurd, ridiculous, heartwarming [thing].”
After 10 years together, Allyson popped the question, and the union was a no-brainer. By their wedding, Allyson and Kori had everyone’s blessing, including Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer, who agreed to officiate their wedding when the two reached out with interest in her beliefs and care for the city.
Today, volleying life philosophies from different lenses, the two somehow can’t help but finish each other’s sentences. “I needed to know that we could get through things that change in our lives,” says Kori.
“So we could change together and grow together,” says Allyson.
A number of bills filed in the Tennessee General Assembly’s current session target the LGBTQ community at the state’s public schools.
The current session kicked off two weeks ago and is off to a slow start. Usually, lawmakers start the session in a flurry of filing bills and getting them before their appropriate committees. However, this year committee schedules have been light, likely due to the fact that lawmakers went to Nashville for three special sessions, the most in Tennessee history.
Though slow, the session is proving there’s no shortage of anti-LGBTQ sentiment among the many members of the Tennessee legislature. Here are three bills worth watching this session:
Textbook Ban
House Bill 800 by Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) — The bill would ban textbooks and instruction materials that “promote, normalize, support, or address controversial social issues, such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) lifestyles.” The bill deems these “lifestyles” as “inappropriate.”
“The promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles in public schools offends a significant portion of students, parents, and Tennessee residents with Christian values,” reads the bill. “The promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles should be subject to the same restrictions and limitations placed on the teaching of religion in public schools.”
This bill was filed last year but did not make it to the floors of the House or Senate.
Transgender Athletes
Senate Bill 2153 by Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hoenwald) — The bill “prohibits males from participating in public higher education sports that are designated for females.” It also creates a process “for violations that deprive a student of an athletic opportunity or that cause direct or indirect harm to a student at the middle school, high school, or postsecondary level.”
Teachers and pronouns
House Bill 2633 by Rep. Mark Cochran (R-Engelwood) — This would allow school teachers or employees to use whatever pronouns they want for students “if the pronoun does not align with the student’s biological sex.”
It would also insulate school teachers and employees from lawsuits of being fired for “referring to a student using the pronoun aligned with the student’s biological sex instead of the student’s preferred pronoun.”
“In other words, this bill protects school personnel who discriminate against transgender and non-binary students,” said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project. Research shows that school policies that affirm a student’s gender identity yield better health and academic outcomes.
Carmen Maria Machado (Credit: Art Streiber / AUGUST)
This week, Memphis will be graced with a reading by a world-class author of fiction and memoir — Carmen Maria Machado. The author will give a reading at the University of Memphis, along with a lecture on craft, and we had the honor of an interview in advance of her visit.
In Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties, she defies genre and writes stories that read like fables and urban legends. “At first everyone blamed the fashion industry, then the millennials, and, finally, the water,” Machado writes in “Real Women Have Bodies,” in which an epidemic has young girls fading away, to translucence and then to nothing. Even though pandemics and climate change and words like “millennials” root the collection in the present moment, there’s an air of timelessness to it as well, as if these stories have always been told somewhere, in some form.
In a sense they have. These are tales of girls and women who have been taught to fear, and of how it feels to fully inhabit a body, to feel love and lust, to be the madwoman in one’s own attic.
Her Body and Other Parties
Memphis Flyer:Have you always been a reader? Have you always been interested in stories?
Carmen Maria Machado: Yes, I was a reader from the very beginning. My parents were not huge readers themselves but very much believed in the value of reading — someone read to me every night, whether it was my mom or dad or my great-grandmother. When did you begin writing? As soon as I could pick up a pencil, I was writing my own stories and poems, often riffing on writers I loved (like Roald Dahl and Shel Silverstein).
“Brides never fare well in stories. Stories can sense happiness and snuff it out like a candle.” I was really struck by those lines in “The Husband Stitch.” Can you talk about the importance of stories in that piece? “The Husband Stitch” is a story about stories; the stories we tell ourselves to survive, to be happy, to make sense of a world determined not to make sense. But stories are also unruly; they can shift and evolve, come to mean things you wouldn’t expect, take on new context. Ultimately, it’s a story about how stories can’t save us.
I know people who make lists to help with anxiety, and I couldn’t help thinking about them when I read “Inventory.” Does the narrator focus on these details to help banish the pandemic in the story to the margins? I think so? I’m also a list-maker and I’ve always been fascinated by the form; how you can see around a list, or use it to play with foregrounding and backgrounding as a literary technique.
I notice that sometimes your characters are unnamed. What made you decide to leave their names unspoken? I think it’s because I write a lot of first-person stories and I don’t always think of my protagonist as someone who needs to be named.
Much of the collection seems rooted in the physicality of women’s bodies. What is the significance of the disappearing girls and women in “Real Women Have Bodies”? The title seems to draw a line toward supposedly body-positive messaging that nonetheless excludes many women — and is rooted in consumerism and fetishization of women, rather than in reality. Am I way off the mark here? No! This is one of many stories of mine that directly came from its title. I was thinking about the phrase “real women have curves,” which (as you say) comes from a body-positive place but is fundamentally broken as a philosophy. I remember thinking, “Real women have bodies,” and then liking it as a phrase, and writing it down. Eventually the story just unspooled from there.
Since the upcoming event at the University of Memphis will have a craft interview component, I want to talk a little bit about your process. Can you talk a little bit about what it means to be a working writer today? I have been incredibly lucky; I’m pretty much having a dream career as a writer in every respect. The fact that I can support myself with my writing is truly incredible, and I get to dive into passion projects constantly. That being said, a lot of writers don’t have that luxury; being a working writer can be extremely difficult, and in the U.S. we have so little support for artists. And trying to do all of it during a pandemic and climate crisis? It’s amazing anything gets written at all.
Is there anything you’ve learned about writing (and querying, submitting, etc.) that you wish you had known when you were younger? There’s no rush to submit or publish. Make the best work you can make; the rest will come later.
I was fortunate enough to get to interview Tayari Jones a few years ago, and she told me, “I believe that people with the most important stories don’t have time to write every day.” Would you agree with that? That’s a very bold statement! I agree with the sentiment if not the sentence itself. Certainly people whose lives don’t permit them massive swaths of time to write every day have stories worth telling, and we would be a better society if we supported them. (Also, the idea that one has to write every day to be successful is very silly; I don’t write every day, and I never have.)
Is there anything else you would like to talk about or make sure readers know?Nope! Thank you so much — I can’t wait to come to Memphis.
Carmen Maria Machado will give a reading of her work on Thursday, November 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the University of Memphis UC Theatre. She will give a craft interview the next day at noon in Patterson Hall 456. Both are free and open to the public.
The first trangender-focused exhibition at Brooks Museum of Art will open on Saturday.
The exhibition, “On Christopher Street,” by New York-based photographer Mark Seliger, features portraits of transgender individuals in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Greenwich Village is said to be the birthplace of the LGBTQ rights movement following the police raid on the historic gay bar The Stonewall Inn in 1969. That raid sparked protests on the street that would later be commemorated with Pride marches all over the world.
Seliger began taking the portraits in 2014 and continued for about three years, capturing 60 subjects. He started with a small camera kit, taking pictures after work as a way to document the neighborhood.
Christopher Street, a safe haven for many, began to change and Seliger wanted to capture the community before it completely transformed.
“I’d stop people on the street and ask if I could take a quick portrait of them,” he said. “ I wasn’t sure where the project was going, but it evolved from there.”
As Seliger continued snapping photos, he asked himself what was unique about his portraits. Then he realized he was beginning to tell a story about identity, focusing on transgender individuals. Seliger said he wanted to dig deeper and learn more about the subjects of his photos.
His subjects told him stories of their successes and accomplishments, as well as the hurdles they had to overcome to become who they are today.
“My subjects were being the truest to themselves as they had ever been, as if it was the first time they’d really been seen in this light,” Seliger said. “That was really kind of an amazing moment.”
Taking the portraits, Seliger also said he began to learn more about the importance of identity.
“As I was learning about the idea of being comforted with who you are and how you identify while being the truest to who you are, I realized that’s important to your own personal worth and connection to others and yourself,” Seliger said. “That was very meaningful to me.”
At the end of the day, Seliger believes his portraits capture the human experience, which is “remarkable, profound, and terrifying.”
For those that view his photos, Seliger just wants them to gain a new sense of understanding and awareness for the human struggle.
“Ultimately, it’s for the viewer to determine how they want to react to it,” Seliger said. “We give them as much information as we can in order to lead people to their own level of clarity. But I think the work is eye-opening and hopefully will start a conversation that we need to have about gender and inclusivity.”
Brooks’ curator of European and decorative art, Rosamund Garrett, said Seliger’s photos not only showcase the trans community, but also tell the story of gentrification.
“For years, Mark has witnessed the steady erosion of the rich cultural diversity of the area and its replacement with luxury boutiques,” Garrett said. “His striking portraits not only celebrate the trans community but also represent a cautionary tale about gentrification. This message is as resonant in Memphis in 2021 as it has been in New York City and other communities around the country for years.”
The exhibition will run from Saturday, September 18th to January 9th. Seliger and four of his portrait subjects will be present at the hybrid virtual/in-person opening reception on Friday. The event will be live streamed here.
Additionally, Brooks is hosting a panel discussion with Alex Hauptman from OUTMemphis and Kayla Gore from My Sistah’s House about Memphis’ LGTBQ community on Saturday.
The Tennessee law that bans transgender students from using the restroom that matches their gender identity is a “classic example of discrimination,” said the head of a Tennessee-based LGBTQ advocacy group.
Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), said The Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act (also known as the School Facilities Law), signed by Governor Bill Lee in May, unfairly takes away transgender students’ basic rights.
“Whenever you tell a group of students they need to use a separate restroom, you are telling them that they are different and what they are entitled to is different as a result,” Sanders said. “When it’s done by an official government entity, then that is the government carrying out that discrimination.”
TEP, which advocates for the equal rights of LGBTQ people in Tennessee, helped find plaintiffs for a lawsuit recently filed by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that seeks to block the law from being enforced.
Federal district court judge Eli Richardson denied HRC’s motion for a preliminary injunction last week, citing an “unreasonable delay in filing the lawsuit.” The court will now conduct a hearing on the motion. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, Sanders said “it was the right thing to do.”
“For us and for HRC, it was morally imperative to do this,” Sanders said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think there’s a good chance the law will be struck down.”
Sanders said for years the far right has been pushing bathroom bills targeting the transgender community that serve “as a way of whipping up fear about transgender people.”
The School Facilities law is “dehumanizing” and “stigmatizing,” he said.
“It’s a divisive tactic,” Sanders said. “The law says to everyone that there is something wrong with trans people and that you shouldn’t share the bathroom with them. Trans people just want to use the bathroom in peace like everyone else.”
“Trans people just want to use the bathroom in peace like everyone else.”
By passing the law, the leaders of the state are sending a message that they don’t understand transgender youth, Sanders said. That lack of understanding leads to harmful policies like the bathroom law.
“That’s a really destructive message,” Sanders said. “When your government not only doesn’t care about you, but is willing to go to great lengths to pass laws attacking you, it’s the worst kind of message you could send to youth.”
Instead of passing anti-transgender laws, Sanders said Tennessee legislators should focus on passing laws that are trans-affirming, prohibiting discrimination in housing, education, and employment. He adds that dscrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation needs to be banned under state law and that there needs to be a comprehensive anti-bullying policy for students at the state level.
“There are a lot of changes that could be made at the state level to protect LGBTQ youth, but the state is unfortunately not moving in that direction,” Sanders said.
Compounding the Struggle
Dr. KT Hiestand, a licenced psychologist who specializes in treatment for LGBTQ individuals in Memphis, said navigating life can already be a challenge for transgender youth without the addition of discriminatory laws.
Dr. KT Hiestand
Many transgender youth struggle with gender dysphoria, which is the medical term for the discomfort one feels about their body because of features that do not match their gender identity. For example, a transgender boy might be uncomfortable with having a high-pitched voice or the development of breasts.
Gender dysphoria is known to lead to depression and anxiety, Hiestand said. Transgender youth, especially in the South, also often struggle to find support for their identity. Trans youth are kicked out of their family homes and become homeless at much higher rates than their peers, he said. Trangender youth also are 40 percent more likely than their peers to attempt suicude.
“Laws like the bathroom one adds to the negative experience that trans youth are already having,” Hiestand said. “It can be enough to push them over the edge.”
It can be enough to push them over the edge.
Hiestand said the law can also create a mistrust in government among transgender youth.
“Think of a kid who has gone through some real struggles with first trying to figure out themselves and then coming out, but who has made progress,” he said. “Now, it feels like the government is out to get them. It’s really scary and it affects their ability to trust government authority.”
Under the law, trans students who do not want to use the restroom matching their gender assigned at birth are required to use a single-occupancy restroom. This often means using a restroom in a teacher’s lounge or another isolated restroom.
“The problem with this is that it sets them apart from other students,” Hiestand said. “It’s not a positive feeling being different from all of your peers.”
Additionally, this can be logistically challenging, Hiestand said. As a result, many trangender students will avoid using the bathroom when they are at school by not drinking anything during the school day. This sets them up for a slew of medical issues, he said.
The other option for trangender students is to use a restroom that “feels completely wrong to them.” This is mentally harmful and can potentially be physically harmful, Hiestand said.
“Transgender youth are not here to cause problems for people in the restroom,” he said. “They simply want to get in, do their business, and get out.”
An LGBTQ advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit against Tennessee earlier this week, challenging a bathroom bill that restricts transgender students’ use of school restrooms.
The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) filed the lawsuit in the District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on behalf of two transgender children.
The lawsuit alleges that the Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act (also known as the School Facilities Law), signed by Governor Bill Lee in May, “unfaily discriminates against transgender children.”
“By singling out transgender students for disfavored treatment and explicitly writing discrimination against transgender people into State law, the School Facilities Law violates the most basic guarantees of equal protection under the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit further argues that the law endangers the safety, privacy, security, and well-being of transgender students through “intentional and inherent discrimination.”
“The law invites potential harassment and assault of non-transgender students who may not fit gender expectations or stereotypes associated with their gender identity by giving private persons a right of action to sue under the Law, and thereby encouraging independent policing of everyone who uses a multi-occupancy restroom,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit seeks to block the state from enforcing the law, while requiring that the plaintiffs, along with other students, are allowed to use multi-occupancy restrooms matching their gender identity.
HRC president Alphonso David calls the law in question “morally reprehensible” and “devoid of any sound legal justification.”
“Courts have time-and-time again ruled against these dangerous and discriminatory laws and we are going to fight in court to strike down this one and protect the civil rights of transgender and non-binary young people,” David said in a press release. “With our representation of two transgender kids today, we are sending a strong message of support for all transgender and non-binary children across the country [that] you matter, and your legal rights should be respected.”
The law being challenged is one of five targeting transgender students signed into law this year in Tennessee. Together, the laws prevent transgender students from participating in high school and middle school sports, prevent physicians from prescribing hormone treatment for prepubertal transgender youth, require public schools to notify parents before offering any curriculum about sexual orientation and gender identity, and require businesses with bathrooms open to the public to post a notice at the entrance of each public restroom if the business allows transgender individuals to use the restrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
This is the second lawsuit filed in response to one of these laws. The first, filed in May by the American Civil Liberties Union, challenges the Business Bathroom Bill, which requires businesses to post signs if they allow transgender customers to use multi-occupancy restrooms. A federal judge has preliminarily blocked the law from being implemented.
Memphis is one of eight sites for a new study that could broaden blood-donor eligibility for men who have sex with men.
In April 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) deferred a man who had sex with another man from donating blood for three months following his most recent sexual contact with another man. The aim of the policy is to reduce the risk of infection, including HIV, from reaching the blood supply.
In May, three of the nation’s largest blood centers — Vitalant, OneBlood, and the American Red Cross — announced the pilot study funded by the FDA. The study is called Assessing Donor Variability And New Concepts in Eligibility (ADVANCE) and is being conducted at sites in Memphis, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Orlando, New Orleans/Baton Rouge, Miami, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
Researchers hope to determine if an individual risk analysis for donors would be as effective as the time deferral method. To get there, they are looking at possible changes to the donor history questionnaire, a series of questions that all potential blood donors answer before donating. The questions assess risk factors that could indicate possible infection with a transfusion transmissible infection, including HIV.
“The ADVANCE study is a first step in providing data that will help the FDA determine if a donor history questionnaire based on individual risk would be as effective as time-based deferral in reducing the risk of HIV in the blood supply,” said Brian Custer, vice president of research and scientific programs with Vitalant Research Institute.
In all, researchers hope to enroll 2,000 participants aged 18-39, about 250 to 300 from each study area. In Memphis, the study is led by Vitalant and supported by Friends for Life, the Corner, and OUTMemphis. Click here for Memphis appointments.
“If the scientific evidence supports the use of the different questions it could mean gay and bisexual men who present to donate would be assessed based upon their own individual risk for HIV infection and not according to when their last sexual contact with another man occurred,” said Susan Stramer, vice president of scientific affairs, with the American Red Cross Biomedical Services.
Participants will be financially compensated for their time. For more information click below.
