Photo courtesy of Melissa Stewart. Melissa Stewart FP ’19 poses for a photo.
By Melanie Duronio ’26
Features Editor
When the state of Tennessee introduced legislation to ban drag and “adult cabaret performances” last March, Mount Holyoke College alumna Melissa Stewart FP ’19 knew she needed to stop it. Stewart and her co-counsel at Donati Law filed a temporary restraining order against the state, preventing the law from taking effect until midnight of June 2, 2023.
Stewart and her team first sued the state in March on behalf of Friends of George’s, a Memphis-based theater group that produces drag shows and other performances. After taking the case to trial through multiple hearings, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker found the drag ban unconstitutional, writing that it was “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.”
The ban was officially overturned just before midnight on June 1, 2023.
Stewart and her team spent that night at a venue for a Memphis Pride event. When they announced Judge Parker’s ruling, “the place erupted” into cheers and celebration.
“It set the scene for the whole weekend … just the euphoria of everyone screaming ‘we won!’ It was a really beautiful moment,” Stewart said. “I felt like this community really deserved it. [Especially] after everything [the community in] Memphis had done to fight this.”
Stewart, who identifies as queer, found this case to be “intensely personal.” Although she considers it an uplifting and rewarding experience, it also took a toll on her.
“The most powerful people in the state [of Tennessee] had decided to openly and actively try to oppress us and the most vulnerable people in our community … there was something about that which made it more difficult to compartmentalize,” Stewart said.
Stewart finds it important to hold systems of power accountable as a civil rights lawyer, “one person, one case at a time.”
“I view the work that I do as harm reduction. The flawed systems that we have, I’m not going to be able to fix them with this work,” Stewart said. “What I can do, hopefully, is make life less unjust for my clients. I can at least stop some of these laws before they start to harm people.”
“I view the work that I do as harm reduction. The flawed systems that we have, I’m not going to be able to fix them with this work,” Stewart said. “What I can do, hopefully, is make life less unjust for my clients. I can at least stop some of these laws before they start to harm people.”
Steward studied English at Mount Holyoke and attended Duke University School of Law before becoming a civil rights lawyer for Donati Law.
According to Stewart, Mount Holyoke “opened up an entirely different world for me.” Raised by a conservative fundamentalist Christian sect, Stewart attended school through her church and received a limited education. When she entered the Frances Perkins Scholar program at 27, Mount Holyoke became the first place she could live as openly queer and “take up space.”
“When I left the church, I still was not able to speak up to authority, [and] especially [not] to male authority. Mount Holyoke gave me a space where not only was I allowed to do that, but I was actively encouraged [to do so],” Stewart said. “It gave me permission to have opinions without apologizing and to lead without feeling like I had to take a backseat to other people.”
Stewart recalls her college days fondly and feels her “lived experience would have been completely different” if she had gone to another school for undergrad. She spent most nights in Shattuck talking and studying with friends. During their conversations, she “only ever felt loved or cared for.”
As an English major, Stewart learned how to organize her writing in a succinct and logical manner. Her focus in medieval literature frequently overlapped with law, and she wrote her senior thesis on medieval defamation law and “The Book of Margery Kempe,” the oldest known English autobiography. She found medieval logic and rhetoric to be transferable to legal writing: both require the development of a clear and engaging chain of logic for an argument.
Stewart credits Professor Wesley Yu for influencing her writing style and pushing her to improve constantly, emphasizing that “he taught me to write exactly the way I needed to learn how to write [for law school].”
“In law school, they tell you over and over again how academic writing is not the same as legal writing. Well, apparently, it is if you wrote for Professor Yu,” Stewart joked.
Moving forward, Stewart and her team will continue to fight against drag bans and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in other states. The team is currently working with lawyers in states including Texas and Montana, alongside organizations like the Texas Civil Rights Project.
For students who identify as queer and are interested in advocating for social justice, whether through law or another path, Stewart emphasizes forming connections and community.
“Prioritize finding queer community because you’re not going to be able to fix everything and separate yourself from the awful things that are happening to queer people … what you can do is make sure you have a community that holds you up and keeps you safe, and that you do the same for them.”
She added that a queer community, “[is] not just a group of friends, it’s different than that. And you [Mount Holyoke students] deserve it.”