Culture

Tennessee Governor Will Sign Bill Allowing Parents to Opt Out of LGBTQ+ Education


 

Tennessee is poised to pass its second anti-LGBTQ+ law of the year after governor Bill Lee signaled his support for a bill targeting inclusive education in schools.

On Friday, a spokesperson confirmed to the Associated Press that Lee intends to sign Senate Bill 1229, which would mandate that K-12 schools in Tennessee give parents 30 days’ notice before teaching students about sexual orientation or gender identity in the classroom. Should families object to the curriculum, the legislation would give them the ability to opt their child out of the lesson.

Lee’s office did not offer a statement regarding his support for SB 1229, but the Republican’s approval was widely expected after he signed a bill into law this March barring transgender student athletes from playing on the team that aligns with their gender identity in schools. Tennessee is one of three states, along with Arkansas and Mississippi, to enact an anti-trans sports ban in 2021, while South Dakota Kristi Noem signed a pair of executive orders targeting trans students.

SB 1229, which passed by overwhelming margins in the GOP-controlled Tennessee House and Senate, is not as restrictive as an anti-LGBTQ+ education bill sent to the desk of Arizona governor Doug Ducey earlier this week.

As them. previously reported, the Arizona legislation — known as SB 1456 — could allow parents to object to virtually any course in which LGBTQ+ people are mentioned, whether sex ed or a class mentioning the contributions of civil rights leaders like Bayard Rustin or Marsha P. Johnson. The AP claims that Tennessee’s version does not go quite as far, stating that it would allow teachers to refer to a “historic figure or group” or respond to a “student’s question” about LGBTQ+ identity.

Opponents remain concerned, as the AP reports, that enactment of SB 1456 would “alienate already marginalized students” during a year in which LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools has been under constant attack by conservative lawmakers.

A more extreme bill put forward this year, House Bill 800, would prohibit textbooks that mention the LGBTQ+ community from being used in K-12 classrooms. Per the bill, it would also broadly apply to all “instructional materials or supplemental instructional materials that promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender issues or lifestyles.”

Authored by Tennessee Representative Bruce Griffey (R-District 75), HB 800 claims that discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity is “inappropriate” in schools because the subject could offend a “significant portion of students’ parents and Tennessee residents with Christian values.”

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“LGBTQ issues and lifestyles should be subject to the same restrictions and limitations placed on the teaching of religion in public schools,” the legislation claims.

HB 800 has yet to clear either the Tennessee House or Senate, although it was met with narrow approval in the House Education Instruction Committee earlier this month, which passed the bill by an 8-7 margin. Should Lee sign the legislation into law, the Volunteer State would join 5 others in prohibiting the “promotion of homosexuality” in schools. Other states with “No Promo Homo” laws currently in effect are Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The legislation could face a court challenge, however, after an HB 800-style law specific to sex ed classes was struck down by a South Carolina court last year. Utah became the first Republican state to repeal its “No Promo Homo” guidelines through legislative action in 2017, while Alabama hopes to follow in its footsteps this year, despite the state’s advancement of anti-trans legislation.

Aside from the LGBTQ+ education bills, Tennessee has introduced 9 other bills targeting queer and transgender people in 2021. These include an anti-trans medical care ban and a bill that would force businesses that allow trans people to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity to hang signs warning customers.

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