Tennessee lawmakers consider bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights

JACKSON, Tenn. — Tennessee lawmakers are considering two bills this session that would directly impact the LGBTQ+ community. Both bills are scheduled to go before the Tennessee Judiciary Committee on March 4.

Bill would ban LGBTQ+ flags on state property

House Bill 1474 would ban the display of LGBTQ+ flags or emblems on any state-owned property, including flags on teachers’ desks or in state workers’ offices.

Chaplain Dahron Annelise Johnson with the Nashville Committee of the Tennessee Equality Project said the bill is discriminatory.

“This is yet another attempt by legislators to try to pass some type of anti pride flag, anti public pride, anti pride demonstration, anti pride allyship,” Johnson said.

State Rep. Chris Todd said he supports the bill and that his constituents do as well.

“These are obviously, and my folks know this, these are things used to indoctrinate and used to recruit kids into a lifestyle that is not godly. We certainly want to support what the constituents are saying and I think this is across the state,” Todd said.

Johnson said targeting one specific group crosses a line.

“But when you point out just how targeted, and let’s be honest, when it is targeted like this, you are already headed into discriminatory territory,” Johnson said.

Second bill addresses landmark Supreme Court ruling

House Bill 1472 would allow Tennessee courts to use the Bostock v. Clayton County case as a reference. That landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision protects employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity under civil rights protections.

Todd said the ruling misinterpreted the Civil Rights Act.

“In the Bostock case the justices somehow found a way to do what Congress hasn’t been able to do and have finagled their interpretation of the Civil Rights Act to now apply to these conditions and to give them protection under the guise of sex,” Todd said.

Johnson argued the bill would allow Tennessee employers to discriminate against protected groups.

“This bill seeks to say that Tennessee does not have to abide by that. It does not have to comply, it does not have to not discriminate,” Johnson said.

Todd said the bill does not change anything about the original Civil Rights Act.

“Discrimination on the basis of sex — being male or female — has certainly been the law of the land since 1964. No one has disputed that and no one is changing that. That is going to remain. So there will be no discrimination in my view of what has been protected all this time,” Todd said.

Both bills will go before the Tennessee Judiciary Committee on March 4.

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