Tennessee lawmakers push slate of anti-LGBTQ measures
Two legislative measures are considered discriminatory against LGBTQ+ Tennesseans, including one that would make it state policy that there are only two genders. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Tennessee lawmakers are pushing numerous bills the LGBTQ+ community considers discriminatory, including one that would force state and local governments to ensure all laws and policies referring to a person's sex or gender are based on 'anatomy and genetics' at birth.
Another bill passed by the House Monday — without debate — would require private schools and churches that allow children to stay in residential facilities such as summer camps to segregate restrooms and changing areas based on 'immutable biological sex.'
Those are among a spate of bills opposed by the LGBTQ+ community during the legislative session.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to take up Senate Bill 936 Tuesday, a measure declaring it is state policy that only biological males and females exist in Tennessee, despite the presence of multiple transgender residents at legislative meetings.
We have a real issue in our nation, folks don't understand that when God created us, Genesis 1:27, he created male and female, end of sentence. There is no such thing as gender.
– Sen. Paul Rose, R-Covington
Sponsored by Republican Sen. Paul Rose of Covington, the bill contains a broad amendment requiring local governments and the state to revise all ordinances, resolutions, rules, policies and procedures to reflect that references to a person's sex or gender are based on their genetics at birth. Complaints could be filed in chancery court to force compliance, ultimately allowing the state government to withhold Department of Economic and Community Development grants from local governments.
'We have a real issue in our nation, folks don't understand that when God created us, Genesis 1:27, he created male and female, end of sentence. There is no such thing as gender,' Rose said. 'That is something that's made up by mankind.'
Rose added later, 'We're just not going to recognize transgender.' He also downplayed the significance of the proposed amendment's impact on governments.
The lawmaker postponed consideration of the bill until Tuesday after the amendment was added earlier in the day, giving people little time to read it.
Chris Sanders, director of the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said the amendment makes the bill more sweeping than it was originally because city and county governments and school districts approach the matter in different ways.
'It's a big bill now,' Sanders said, because it forces local and state governments to correct anything that is 'at odds' with the legislation.
State government entities, including Tennessee universities, would be required to take the same steps as local governments, and failure to comply could lead to reductions in a department or agency budget following an investigation by the Comptroller's Office. Those departments and universities also would be ineligible to receive grants from the Department of Economic and Community Development.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton ordered troopers to remove at least one protester from the gallery after House Majority Leader William Lamberth used a technical maneuver to cut off debate and kill an amendment to the bill requiring segregated bathrooms.
The House voted 74-18 in favor of House Bill 64 by Rep. Gino Bulso of Brentwood. Bulso declined to comment afterward, but he told lawmakers in a subcommittee meeting earlier this year that he received a complaint from a parent about a transgender child sharing a changing facility at a summer camp.
Sanders said afterward he was 'disgusted' that no debate was allowed on what he considers a 'consequential, disgusting, far-reaching bill.'
'We all know it attacks transgenders, but it reaches into the private sector in a way that state bills usually don't,' Sanders said.
Democratic Rep. Aftyn Behn of Nashville was incensed after Republicans sidestepped her amendment.
Behn said in a statement she introduced an amendment to 'neuter their latest Big Brother bathroom bill' but was blocked from speaking.
'It's wild that the party of 'small government' wants to micromanage private institutions of their ability to set their own policies,' Behn said. 'Regarding the procedural retaliation, this is a pattern of weaponizing their supermajority status to either punish a disparate worldview or block minority voices from the conversation.'
Some Republican lawmakers said they wanted to hear debate on the matter, but they didn't feel enough urgency to vote for discussion.
House Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison said he typically favors debate but claimed Behn's amendment would have 'completely destroyed' the bill.
'Regardless of how we feel individually, collectively our (GOP caucus) members don't want to hear it. If you're going to do something like that, we're not going to talk about it,' said Faison, a Cosby Republican.
Faison added that 'it's incumbent on the legislature to protect children,' but he said transgender kids don't deserve to be a 'protected class' of people.
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