By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — Legislation accused by Civil Rights groups such as the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) of gradually stripping away the rights of LGBTQ+ people has advanced through the Tennessee House and Senate, several of which only require the signature of Governor Bill Lee to officially become law. This legislation includes that which would eliminate explicit language to protect minority children from the Tennessee teacher’s code of ethics, prohibit the display of pride flags in schools across the state, and require teachers as well as possible school counselors to report children to their guardians if they label themselves as gender nonconforming.
“The goal is to erase us, it’s to make us feel small, it’s to make us feel like our contributions don’t matter,” said TEP advocate and trans K-5 Special Ed Teacher MJ Bearden.
Bearden said the state legislature’s goal is to pick apart the LGBTQ+ community by first targeting smaller niches rather than the community as a whole, to limit the amount of public outcry. They said by using academic language in their legislation the h is appealing both to those who already hold anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and those who are unsure where they stand on the presence of LGTBQ+ in schools. TEP Wilson County Chair Erin Moore said though much of the legislation is not specific in its language, it still scrapes away protections for LGBTQ+ children.
HB1634/SB2766 removes language that explicitly protects students from being discriminated against for factors such as sexual orientation, race, and national origin from the teacher code of ethics and replaces it with general language. While testifying against HB1634, Bearden said the bill’s House sponsor Representative Gino Bulso (R-Brentwood) tried to spin its language to imply it would be adding protections for LGBTQ+ children. Bearden and Moore said instead, the lack of explicitly stated protections against various forms of bigotry allows for loopholes that could be taken advantage of.
“It’s a way of just pretending there’s not a problem,” Moore said. “That we’re not bullying, partially because the legislators in it of themselves are bullying.”
Bearden and Moore said the “flag ban” of HB1605/SB1722 for flags that aren’t the American national flag or the Tennessee state flag would make it harder for teachers to build a safe and fun classroom for their students. The two said it is common practice for school faculty to display “safe space” flags such as the pride flag to indicate to LGBTQ+ students they could be themselves. They said not only does banning limit the exercise of the First Amendment, but inadvertently stifles the expression of common passions such as the display of a NASCAR flag by a racing fan.
Bearden and Moore said one of the greatest threats to the safety of non-gender conforming and trans students is HB2165, which would force the outing of any child who discloses their identity to teachers to the child’s guardian. The two said this promise of forcible outing by the school would thrust young kids into difficult conversations they may not be ready for and cause psychological damage. Moore said the bill could place students in physical danger, with Bearden saying people being forcibly outed has already resulted in cases of assault and death.
Moore said banning conversation around LGBTQ+ people in school does not eliminate them from our society, but further alienates vulnerable children from support systems many of them very much need.
“I really don’t think it’s about helping anyone … it’s about protecting what they think Tennessee should look like,” Bearden said. “But, Tennessee doesn’t just look like them, it looks like all of us.”
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