After 14 years of lip-syncing and cheek-pinking, Memphis drag theater company Friends of George’s made its debut as an official Ostrander Award contender this season with 16 nominations in categories across the board. Nods for excellence in wigs, makeup and costumes were not unexpected. But the judges also noted that FOG is among a handful of companies producing original scripts.
Unlike drag shows in clubs, FOG offers (for the most part) loosely plotted productions with all the usual adult-comedy adjectives: bawdy, naughty, campy, vampy, scampy, trampy, etc. The collaboratively penned scripts brim with cleverness and deep-cut cultural references that make these shows as timely as they are comedic. However it pans out for the company at the Aug. 26 ceremony, I expect their red carpet appearance at the Orpheum to be the biggest winner of the night. In the words of Ru Paul, “Good luck, and don’t fuck it up.”
Company leaders tell me that the nominations, along with a recent national spotlight (to be discussed in a moment), are pushing the troupe in sparkly new directions. Case in point: their current show, running through Aug. 11, “Death Drop at Hotel L’George: Ain’t Murder a Drag?” parodies the mystery-thriller genre, complete with sleuths Dragatha Christie, Cher L’Combs (say it quickly) and Scooby Doo’s Velma investigating the demise of a quack surgeon whose possible killers are a resort full of people scarred by hilariously awful elective procedures. The story by Jane Parks, Burton Bridges, Ty Phillips, Rick Bartl, Alexandra Carpenter and Sandy Kozik delivers a constant feed of sight gags and ridiculousness.
It launches a season in which FOG intends to up its game and visibility. Personally, I love the Mickey-and-Judy spirit of their usual efforts, but coming off their national recognition as champions of Free Speech, FOG isn’t wasting the publicity. After all, they’ve gotten quite a bit of it from the great State of Tennessee itself, with whom FOG is engaged in an ongoing battle legale.
Someday, the sordid affair might make a great courtroom spoof. (The finest hour of Tammy Wynette’s “Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad” is probably inevitable.) But the case’s growing Wikipedia entry should leave little doubt that if the state prevails there will be many unfunny times ahead for many Tennessee artists.
The clash began when the state’s Republican supermajority passed a controversial law making male or female impersonation the equivalent of topless dancing — all in the name of protecting children from obscenity (see recent book bans and anti-Critical Race Theory measures for context). FOG filed suit in a U.S. District Court and won. A Trump-appointed judge ruled that, yes, there was a legitimate fear that the law encroached upon the First Amendment rights of people wearing costumes.
“If Tennessee wishes to exercise its police power in restricting speech it considers obscene, it must do so within the constraints and framework of the United States Constitution,” wrote Judge Tommy Parker in his temporary injunction. “The Court finds that, as it stands, the record here suggests that when the legislature passed this Statute, it missed the mark.”
In July, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, kind of agreed. Who in their right mind would mistake a drag show performed in the confines of a theater for pornography? The law, they said, is clearly aimed at protecting children from obscenity, which state lawmakers are entitled to do. The drag queens of FOG are the good drag queens, who keep their dirty little business behind lock and key for adult audiences. And because they don’t, by their own testimony, do anything bad — out in public, at least — they lacked standing to contest the law.
Sashay away to Memphis, the court ruled, and stay away from kids.
“But wait,” said FOG’s counsel and dissenting justice Andre Mathis, “these fair demi-maidens aren’t trying to prove they are law-abiding citizens. They are asking why any man or woman in a g-string can walk down the street spouting obscenities with no fear of legal harassment. But when people do so in certain clothing they risk becoming registered sex offenders. The spirit of the law, the queens contend, appears to curb the expression of those whose attire does not match the sex on their state-issued I.D.s. Did this law not create an ominous fog of censorship around people in drag – or transgender people, for that matter — that could be exploited by certain ax-grinding conservatives?
Might this not this incentivize parents to EXPOSE their kids to drag entertainment as a way to test the law’s effectiveness? Couldn’t this become a pretext for arresting queer people reading children’s books in libraries, or intimidating participants in Pride parades? State prosecutors themselves argued the wording was vague enough to cover not just public events, but those in private homes.
In its latest ruling, the appeals court suggests that it would still hear challenges to the law on a case-by-case basis. But not everyone has the ACLU in their Caboodle. Meanwhile, people in drag must now continue to be vigilant when children wander into into view. “Stay hidden, and you’d have nothing to fear,” goes the state’s admonition to drag performers and transgender/nonbinary people alike.
The court, FOG contends in their recent appeal, sidestepped the constitutional question of the case. Until it’s revisited by a larger panel of judges, the law returns to haunt other arts organizations statewide. They could include theater groups putting on shows like “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” or “Some Like it Hot.” Absent Friends, a Memphis group that screens the film ” The Rocky Horror Picture Show” with live actors now has to enforce age restrictions for a vintage 1970s movie musical that has long been a teen rite-of-passage.
The 1970s, for the record, were another big decade for First Amendment battles in Memphis. Below, enjoy an illuminating read about the notorious “Deep Throat” trials that took place here after the X-rated film opened amidst a resurgence of Right Wing political activism.
It remains to be seen how far the FOG case will go. But given some recent loosey-goosey interpretations of constitutional law by the U.S. Supreme Court, FOG’s dramatic arc may still be on the rise. ✒ C.B.
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