2022 Legislative Wrap-Up

2022 Legislative Wrap-Up-

The 112th General Assembly of Tennessee gavel closed sine die on Thursday. We had a hard-worked victory on Tuesday when the Senate Finance Committee moved the “Pronoun Bill” to the heel of the calendar and then closed the committee for the year. What that meant is it could not advance and killed the bill. This bill had passed the House on Monday night and was expected to pass the Senate if it had reached the floor. It was expected that the Governor would have signed it. 

Unfortunately, the “Anti-Trans College Student-Athlete” bill did pass the House on Monday and has been sent to the Governor's Desk where he is expected to sign it. The Governor signed the “Anti-Trans Athlete Enforcement” bill into law last week. 

With only those two bills passing this year, when a record 18 pieces of legislation were anti-LGBT and discriminatory, more than any other state, is a victory. It is unfortunate that our trans siblings continue taking the brunt of the attacks, we must continue to support them and keep fighting for them together.

We want to single out the incredible hard work of trans advocates that made a huge difference this year. Jace Wilder (our former intern) Education Manager and Government Affairs Rep for TEP; and Henry Seaton, Trans Advocate for the ACLU of TN. They had such a powerful impact on educating many at the capitol and beyond about transgender issues. Thank you!

We also want to thank our Equality Coalition partners that we worked arm in arm with every week; the ACLU of Tennessee Executive Director Hedy Weinberg and lobbyist Molly Pratt, the Tennessee Equality Project and their Executive Director Chris Sanders and their lobbyist Jenny Ford, PFLAG Nashville, GLSEN Tennessee, and our national partners the Human Rights Campaign and Freedom for All Americans.