Governor signs state legislation that could gut some local nondiscrimination ordinances
LISA KEEN | Keen News Service
lisakeen@mac.com
Gay legal activists are already working on a legal challenge to a new state law in Tennessee, signed into law Monday, May 23, by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, which prevents local governments from requiring their contractors to abide by local human rights ordinances.
The legislation, entitled the “Equal Access to Intrastate Commerce Act,” was aimed at undermining a new Nashville metro area ordinance, signed into law in April. The ordinance prohibited city contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
It was passed by the Nashville/Davidson County Metro Council.
Abby Rubenfeld, a Nashville attorney and a former legal director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said Tuesday, May 24, that the new state law will “definitely be challenged — we are working on it right now.”
Gov. Haslam, who took office Jan. 15, pitched his support for the law as a pro-business act, saying it relieved businesses of the necessity of navigating differing non-discrimination regulations from city to city.
The Family Action Council of Tennessee argued that it does not target LGBT people, and noted that the law does not affect the Nashville Metropolitan Government ordinance prohibiting discrimination by the government against LGBT people.
But no attempt was made prior to passage of the Nashville ordinance to relieve businesses affected by a Nashville ordinance that prohibited contractors from discriminating based on age, race, sex or disability.
Greg Nevins of Lambda Legal’s Atlanta office said Lambda is not involved in mounting a legal challenge against the Tennessee law, but he called it “a terrible piece of legislation.”
The Human Rights Campaign said Haslam was trying to score “cheap political points” by giving a “green light” to anti-LGBT discrimination. HRC noted that a number of large corporations — including FedEx, AT&T, Comcast and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce — opposed the new state law.
FedEx issued a statement May 20 saying it “values and promotes the unique contributions, perspectives and differences” of all its employees and is “committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.”
State Rep. Glen Casada, a Republican from Williamson County, introduced the “Equal Access” bill after the Nashville Metro Council passed a law requiring city contractors to sign an affidavit promising not to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Specifically, the bill prohibits local ordinances from having non-discrimination laws broader than that of the state. According to Lambda Legal, Tennessee has no statewide laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in either public or private employment.
Casada told local television NewsChannel 5 that the Nashville ordinance amounted to having the city “dictating moral policy.”
Another anti-gay bill — one that sought to prohibit teachers from providing any information about homosexuality to public school students in grades K through 8 — passed the Tennessee Senate 19-to-11 on May 20 but did not get a vote in the House before the General Assembly adjourned May 21.
The original bill — dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” — was amended to limit sex education curricula “to natural reproduction science.”
The Tennessee Equality Project said the bill “remains a threat to safe schools for all students in Tennessee,” even though the bill no longer references homosexuality specifically.
© 2011 by Keen News Service. All rights reserved.
Thank God– the children of Tennessee cannot be sacrificed for the sake of perpetuating more discrimination! This is not a thirld-world country, and gay people have freedoms, too, that Tennessee cannot quash with evil laws!
Don;t believe that America is not a third world country. Having traveled and lived around the world, Americans are the least educated, intellectually honest, capable of independent thought, etc. Americans as a group are bigoted and hateful. Remember who many of them are evangelical Christians who don’t believe in science of anything that remotely relates to reality.
WOW poor kids in Tennessee! These moron law makers are pulling back the US to the middle ages while the rest of the world is moving forward! No wonder the US is in deep shit in every possible aspect.
TAX THE CHURCHES and get religion out of politics!
To the Office of Tourism, Tennessee
Your State is certainly out of touch will current day values. Any discrimination of your residents is a travesty. Any consideration for a visit to Tennessee will not be in my agenda, and I will certainly try to discourage any of my family and friends as well. Hopefully , your legislators will reconsider this bill, and reverse their view. Sincerely, Elizabeth N. Tobey