ACTION ALERT- Session Has Ended, Our Work Has Not
The first session of Tennessee’s 112th General Assembly gaveled to adjournment last night at 9:15 pm, it will resume at noon on January 11th, 2022. While the legislature is done, our work is not.
Governor Lee has three anti-LGBT bills sitting on his desk. We need you to take action now to try and stop this discrimination. There is a robust veto campaign (outreach directly to the Governor) already underway, with some very big companies involved. We are asking for a veto of the bathroom bills, they are discrimination gone too far, and that the bills that will bring the most damage if they become law.
If you have the existing relationships to weigh in on these bills with Gov. Lee, it's very much needed, and as noted above, already underway via other big companies. The general public is also voicing their opposition. If you'd like support, I can help you. I am also collecting stories that we have been receiving about trans people who are afraid to move or travel to Tennessee - if your company has such voices please let me know.
In terms of the bathroom bills themselves:
- HB 1233 / SB 1367 [wapp.capitol.tn.gov] is a school’s bathroom bill - that offers trans students separate and unequal accommodations in our public schools.
- HB 1182 [wapp.capitol.tn.gov] requires businesses to put up a sign (below) that could encourage more harassment of transgender people in restrooms. Its use of the term "biological sex" echoes the very discriminatory bills targeting transgender girls in sports this year. Very much intended to target transgender people and normalize a hostile atmosphere toward them.
There is a financial cost to creating this signage, of course, but it also requires businesses to use transphobic language toward their customers and employees.
If signed into law, these would be the first bathroom bills enacted in any state since 2016 - and in a growing pro-business state like Tennessee, no less.
While we have a rash of anti-trans sports and healthcare bans becoming law in various states, we truly cannot afford to breathe new life into the bathroom bills of 2016-2017. We'd very much appreciate your voices here. We have to make our opposition clear.
You can read more about the rest of the bills and where things stand here.
Contact Governor Lee today at 615-741-2001 and let him know your views on anti-transgender legislation.
Email Option: You can also send him an email through his contact form at https://www.tn.gov/