Conservative lawmakers in 16 mostly red states across America are considering new legislation that would bar teachers from “introducing concepts of sexual orientation or gender identity to young students”, imitating a new Florida law that opponents have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” Law.
Falling back on the Ron DeSantis’ and Anita Bryant’s “Save The Children Campaign” playbook of “gay panic” the following states all have anti-LGBT legislation in the works.: Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, Illinois, Rhode Island, Ohio, and South Dakota.
“Battles over sex education in schools have been a constant front in the culture wars that have raged between liberals and conservatives for decades” aid Aaron Ridings, chief of staff and deputy executive director for public policy and research at GLSEN. ““There’s a chilling effect from all of these bills on people who are LGBT”
State Rep. Jeremy Faison, chair of the House Republican Caucus, rejected the measure despite unanimous passage in the Republican-controlled state senate. Faison cited concerns that the resolution “wasn’t heard in committee, and I feel like it needs to be.”
The Republican controlled State House had previously voted for measures that honored dangerous rightwing pundits Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens. Neither resolution went through a committee and GOP legislators unanimously approved the honors. Only Republicans voted to send Osborne’s resolution to the committee.
“I wish I could say this didn’t hurt, but it does,” TJ Osborne wrote in an Instagram Story post
Grammy-winning singer Kacey Musgrave also expressed her disgust with the Tennessee GOP legislators
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a controversial measure Friday that would let religious adoption agencies deny service to same-sex couples. The move comes after several groups, including the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, urged Lee not to sign the legislation.
The law allows adoption agencies to refuse to participate in a child placement if doing so would “violate the agency’s written religious or moral convictions or policies.”
Under the law, which immediately takes effect, the state will be barred from denying an agency’s license or grant application for public funds because of a refusal to place a child with a family based on religious objections.
This bill was a direct result of being led by Project Blitz. The first thing to know about Project Blitz is that it was launched in 2015 by the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, the National Legal Foundation, and Wallbuilders.
Wallbuilders was founded by David Barton, the Republican operative and discredited revisionist historian who rejects the separation of church and state, claiming that the United States was founded as a Christian nation
Remember,these people are pro-life until the child is born, and then they don’t give a damn.
A bigoted church in Tennessee is denying a dying man’s request to host his funeral because his son is gay.
Jessie Goodman’s father is gravely ill and expected not to recover. Jessie tried to arrange his father’s funeral at Lees Chapel Baptist Church[FB link} in Sweetwater, Tennessee as per his father’s request. His father’s second dying request was that Jessie sing “The Anchor Holds” at the funeral.
But when Jessie, who is engaged to Brandon Smitty, approached the church about the service, Pastor Jay Scruggs and several members of the church told him neither he nor his fiancé could be involved in the funeral because they are gay.
Goodman was told the funeral could be held at the church if Jessie would attend alone, and not be a part of the service at all. If his fiancé showed up, he would be asked to leave.
The father, whose name is being withheld at the family’s request, has been told that his services will not be held at his own church.
“He did know that his funeral wouldn’t happen there,” said Goodman. “And he had a very hurt look on his face when we told him that.“
Tennessee’s News 9 reached out to Lees Chapel Baptist Church , but Pastor Jay Scruggs refused to comment saying he would only speak to the press “after Jessie’s father is in the grave.
Gov. Bill Lee (Republican) has proclaimed Saturday as Nathan Bedford Forrest Day in Tennessee, a day of observation to honor the former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader whose bust is on display in the state Capitol.
Per state law, the Tennessee governor is tasked with issuing proclamations for six separate days of special observation, three of which, including the July 13 Forrest Day, pertain to the Confederacy.
Lee — and governors who have come before him — are also required by state law to proclaim Jan. 19 as Robert E. Lee Day, honoring the commander of the Confederate Army, as well as June 3 Confederate Decoration Day, otherwise known as Confederate Memorial Day and the birthday of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
In April 1864, in what has been called “one of the bleakest, saddest events of American military history.”, troops under Forrest’s command massacred Union troops who had surrendered, most of them black soldiers along with some white Southern Tennesseans fighting for the Union, at the Battle of Fort Pillow.
Forrest was an early member of the Ku Klux Klan which was formed by six veterans of the Confederate Army in Pulaski, Tennessee during the spring of 1866. A common report is that Forrest arrived in Nashville in April 1867 while the Klan was meeting at the Maxwell House Hotel, probably at the encouragement of a state Klan leader, former Confederate general George Gordon
Brian Steel Wills quotes two KKK members who identified Forrest as a Klan leader. James R. Crowe stated, “After the order grew to large numbers we found it necessary to have someone of large experience to command. We chose General Forrest”
Forrest testified before the Congressional investigation of Klan activities on June 27, 1871. He denied membership, but his individual role in the KKK was beyond the scope of the investigating committee, which wrote: “Our design is not to connect General Forrest with this order .
Everyone would be perfectly fine without Nathan Bedford Forrest Day.
At least four gay bars in Nashville, Tennessee have received anonymously sent intimidating pro-Trump flyers. Each flyer features the letters “LGBT” with images of the Statue of Liberty, a beer bottle, an assault rifle, and Donald Trump over each letter.
“They chose to use an image of the weapon that was used in one of the largest massacres in American history at the Pulse Nightclub,” Melvin Brown, who owns and operates the Stirrup Sports Bar in Nashville, told FOX 17 News.
“Was it somebody that is sending it from a hateful place? Was it somebody trying to use it as a motivating factor with the midterm elections coming up, which is a huge possibility.”
Each of the flyers have Trump’s “MAGA” slogan on the reverse side. Police have traced the return addresses to a vacant lot. They have yet to identify the senders.
Some think that the flyers are meant as an intimidation tactic ahead of the mid-term elections, just a few weeks from now. Others believe that in the current political climate that they have a much darker meaning.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of a baker refusing to make wedding cakes for gay couple that was actually not about the cake or “religious freedom” an East Tennessee hardware store owner who two years ago decided to express his beliefs by putting up a sign reading “No Gays Allowed” now feels vindicated
The owner, Jeff Amyx, is both the owner of the hardware and roofing supplies store and a baptist minister who says love between LGBT people is against his religion
Amyx told WBIR he was, inspired by LGBT people’s willingness to stand up for what they believe in, deciding that as a Christian, he should do the same. And that he was celebrating a “win” after the Supreme Court narrowly ruled in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The SCOTUS ruling said the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated Jack Phillips’ rights under the First Amendment, though Colorado law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
On Tuesday, Amyx removed the “No Gays allowed” sign he has hung on his door for the past 2 years and replaced it with a sign that says: “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone who would violate our rights of freedom of speech & freedom of religion.”
“I was shocked. I was really shocked because of the track record of our Supreme Court,” Amyx said. “Christianity is under attack. This is a great win but this is not the end, this is just the beginning,” he said. “Right now we’re seeing a ray of sunshine. This is ‘happy days’ for Christians all over America, but dark days will come.”
Extra Special Bonus!. Amyx Hardware is now categorized as a “gay bar” on Google and the reviews are epic.(I SWEAR I DIDN’T DO IT!)
Nashville, Tennessee police have arrested a long-time anti-LGBT pastor who has been charged with eight counts of aggravated sexual battery for alleged molestation of multiple boys, WBRC News reported Friday.
Matthew Dennis Patterson, 45, who goes by Denny, resigned from Nolensville Road Baptist Church on September 24 and moved to Pennsylvania. Three days later, members of the congregation went to the police precinct with complaints about his requests to “engage in strange activities” with children, authorities said.
Children at the church told adult members that Patterson had asked them to sit on his face and stomach, sometimes in their underwear, according to a police statement.
After interviewing multiple church and staff members, police said the detectives identified multiple victims, most of them boys, who were molested from 1998-2017. Police did not say how old the children were at the time of the alleged abuse.
Patterson has been indicted on eight counts of aggravated sexual battery. Each count is linked to a different child, according to police.
Police said more charges relating to additional victims “are anticipated” as the investigation continues.
Patterson was a vocal opponent of anti-discrimination bills considered by the Nashville Metro Council in 2003. The measures were designed to protect jobs and housing for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
“We want to make sure we keep the pressure on, let them know that anytime they bring this up, we’ll be down here to oppose it,” Patterson told The Tennessean in an article published Feb. 5, 2003.
Nashville police arrested Patterson in Pennsylvania on March 8 — he refused to talk to investigators. Patterson was extradited to Nashville on Friday, and his bond was set at $100,000.
On Saturday Nashville, Tennessee unveiled the states first LGBT historical marker honoring local LGBT activist Penny Campbell.
The marker was placed in front of her former home.
Represented by Nashville attorney Rubenfeld, Penny Campbell was the lead plaintiff in the successful Constitutional challenge in Tennessee that ultimately decriminalized gay sex in 1996.
“Penny was one of those people who were willing to say to Nashville that she was a lesbian and she was willing to be named and identified as such, and she was proud of it. That’s what changed minds and brought us to where we are today,” said Dr. Pippa Holloway, Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University.
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry spoke at the event. “[Penny] was one of the most influential and effective LGBT activists that Nashville has ever seen,” she told the attendees gathered for the ceremony. “She said, ‘it shouldn’t matter who you love and you shouldn’t have to hide that love,’ and she took that all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Penny Campbell passed away in 2014.
Her marker is placed on the 1600 block of McEwen Avenue .
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed a law on Friday that restricts the way words can be defined under state law and severe ramification to the LGBT community when it comes to same sex marriage and adoption rights.
The bill, known as House Bill 1111 or Senate Bill 1085, has caused controversy over its mandate to interpret words in the state code only by their “natural and ordinary” meanings. Conservative groups who lobbied for the law, like the Family Action Council of Tennessee, have said that it will help prevent same-sex spouses and LGBT parents from being treated the same as heterosexual families under the law.
“Undefined words shall be given their natural and ordinary meaning,” the law reads, “without forced or subtle construction that would limit or extend the meaning of the language, except when a contrary intention is clearly manifest.”
Tennessee Senate Bill 30 explicitly mandated that “the words ‘husband,’ ‘wife,’ ‘mother,’ and ‘father’ be given their natural and ordinary meaning, without forced or subtle construction that would limit or extend the meaning of the language and that are based on the biological distinctions between men and women.”
“It just says all undefined words in the code shall be given their normal and ordinary meaning. When we say husband, we mean a man. When we use the word father, we mean a man,” said Fowler in the video. “And this is an attempt to tell the court, in cases like Knoxville and in future cases, when we use a word, we mean for it to mean what everybody thinks it means. And if that word makes the law unconstitutional, so be it.”
Haslam issued a statement shortly after signing the law; “I do not believe the legislation accomplishes anything that isn’t already relied upon by the courts, even after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in 2015,” said Haslam. “And if a potential conflict did arise, the Tennessee Attorney General has opined that a court could resolve it through other statutory interpretation rules.”
