As Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was signing a bill that criminalizes drag shows in the presence of minors, one of his constituents was arranging to post a high-school yearbook photo of him dressed as a girl on billboards across the state.
Using TikTok and GoFundMe, Zachary Heath Stamper of Bristol had raised $54,067 as of 10 a.m. Friday, and he plans to spend some of it on an electronic billboard on Broadway in downtown Nashville. Stamper figures the next billboard will be on Lee’s routes from home to work and to church.
Stamper is a 35-year-old custom kitchen designer and home remodeler who says he was disowned by his family, subjected to conversion therapy, and excommunicated by his church for being gay. He has only dressed as a woman once—for Halloween years ago.
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“But it didn’t look like a joke. I looked like a real pretty woman.”
The governor was also reasonably attractive in the 1977 yearbook photo of an annual “powderpuff” event at Franklin High, in which girls dressed like boys (often football players) and boys dressed like girls (often cheerleaders.) 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 he made a crime with his signature. Never mind that powderpuff is essentially a drag show for minors in which the participants are minors.
“He said it’s supposed to be all in fun,” Stamper said. “But so is drag.”
Stamper is enlisting Tennessee drag fun at its best to participate in his billboard project. He is scouting possible sites aboard Nashville’s Big Drag Bus, one of the most popular party buses in a city known for them.
“Thos drag queens are going to be on there with us as we go around picking out billboards,” he said.
The one on the way from Lee’s home to his church will have an added touch.
“We’re going to have a really nice Bible verse for that,” Stamper said.
Stamper first saw the “teenage Lee in drag” photo on TikTok after it 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 around $1,700 early that evening.
“I woke up Wednesday and it was $22,000,” he reported. “I just couldn't believe it.”
The sum has nearly tripled and it is still growing.
In the meantime, Lee’s press secretary, Jade Byers, released a statement saying the new law “specifically protects children from obscene, sexualized entertainment” and “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. He says there are 8,991 in Tennessee, more than the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) can handle.
“We got kids sleeping on DCS floors and all [Lee] is worried about is banning drag shows,” Stamper said.
He accompanies the billboards with a question for the governor, who insists he signed the new law because it protects children.
“Why are you spending all your time on this instead of foster care?”
