Memphis on the internet.
Dragging Lee
A high-school-aged Governor Bill Lee dressed as a woman. That is what thousands of Reddit users claim is seen in the photo above with the detail that it is “from 1977 Franklin High yearbook page 165.”
The image is topical as a bill that would outlaw drag in many places is likely headed for Lee’s desk. The governor said he has not decided whether or not he’ll sign the bill.
Memphis Reddit user u/inscrutablejane got to the heart of why the image matters, commenting, “The difference for them is that a skit at Senior Follies with football players in bad wigs portrays nonconformity as laughable, shameful, and ridiculous, whereas drag portrays nonconformity as aspirational, liberating, and beautiful; while superficially they’re both ‘man in a dress as entertainment’ they’re actually opposites.”
Lee’s cosplay past landed him in hot water in 2019 when a photo surfaced of him dressed in a Confederate military uniform. That photo was taken during Lee’s Auburn University years at his fraternity’s “weeklong celebration of the grandeur and glory of the Old South.”
Lee later said he regretted the photo.
