Nashville, Tennessee (AP) —Conservative lawmakers across the country have announced a series of anti-LGBTQ bills this year, but the state’s political leader is in Tennessee in enacting new legislation for transgender people. Does not exceed.
Parliamentarians passed, Republican Governor Bill Lee signed five new bills, already discriminating against vulnerable people, some laws are infeasible and could damage the state’s reputation I have consistently dismissed any concerns.
Proponents defend legal policy by policy, arguing that some protect parents’ rights, others protect girls and women, and others further improve equality. Opponents reject those claims.
Colin Goodbread, a 22-year-old transgender student who grew up on the outskirts of Nashville at a university in New Hampshire, said new legislation could prevent Tennessee from calling her home again. I will.
“This kind of bill keeps me away from identifying Tennessee as my state, even though I spent most of my childhood in Tennessee,” said Goodbread, senior at Dartmouth College. I think it’s part of the reason. ” .. “I don’t want to go back there. I’m already attending an out-of-state university. I want to work outside the state. And they don’t want transgender people in the state enough. I made it clear. “
The emergence of Tennessee as an anti-LGBTQ leader came from a right-handed political change in a Republican-controlled state. Lee’s Republican predecessor has put a brake on some socially conservative legislation, but the emphatic Republican election victory, backed by strong support for former President Donald Trump, is that. Since then, I’ve been bold in Congress. That is the political situation in which Lee Seung-yuop will start re-election in 2022.
Parliaments in the other 30 states, mostly under Republican control, are considering banning trans-use from gender-identical sports teams. Twenty people considered a ban on gender-verifying medical care for transgender minors. The Human Rights Campaign calls 2021 the worst year of anti-LGBTQ law in recent history.
Tennessee has banned transgender athletes from playing sports in women’s public high schools and junior high schools this year. The state is initially prepared to require publicly available government buildings and businesses to post signs when transgender people use multi-person bathrooms and other facilities related to gender identity. it’s finished.
Public schools, on the other hand, are at immediate risk of losing proceedings if they force transgender students and employees to use multi-person bathrooms and changing rooms that do not reflect their gender at birth. Lee also signed a law requiring the school district to warn parents and allow them to opt out of classes 30 days before students are taught about sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Tennessee holds the crown of hatred,” said Lambda Legal’s senior lawyer, Sashab Shat.
The governor recently defended the school bathroom rules. “The bill provides equal access to all students,” he said.
The neighboring state of Arkansas is the only other state that bans gender-verifying care for minors and is one of three new transgender bans there. Montana has two new legal restrictions on transgender people. Sports bans have also been passed in several other states, including Alabama, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Decades of cultural warfare over LGBTQ rights have recently focused on transgender Americans and are becoming more and more talked about in conservative news media.
The recent wave of bills has been backed by conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and the Alliance Defending Freedom, the latter providing model bills for transgender athletics bills. The promotion of the State Capitol follows the executive order of Democratic President Joe Biden, which bans discrimination based on gender identity.
According to a Trevor Project survey, 94% of LGBTQ youth say that recent political debates on this issue are having a negative impact on their mental health. Another question found that more than half of transgender and non-binary adolescents are seriously considering attempting suicide in the past year.
The Trevor Project has been contacted by 2,400 endangered young people in Tennessee over the past year, according to Secretary-General Amit Paley.
“Our son regularly asks,’When can I move or send me to a boarding school?’” Said a transgender eighth-grade son from a private school next fall. Amy Allen, who is afraid to turn into a public school, said.
The mayor of Nashville said that business signage requirements for bathrooms and other facilities are particularly in conflict with social policies from downtown Republican-controlled Parliament buildings, especially for growing and progressive cities. Warned that it could be harmful.
“This law is part of the anti-LGBT political foundation of hatred and division,” said Democratic Mayor John Cooper. “One of the risks of Nashville is that the hostility inherent in these signs can be as good as raising another. The sign” Don’t come here. ” We are a comprehensive city and it will not change. “
Some of Tennessee’s new legislation faces practical challenges.
Sponsors of the sign bill said people could file proceedings or district attorneys could ask judges to force companies to comply. However, her group remained neutral to the bill, as Amy Weirich, chairman of the Tennessee District Attorneys’ General Assembly, said the bill “did not say anything related to enforcement.”
“I can’t find anything that grants or provides me the responsibility or right to go to the civil court and ask the judge to enforce it, as it is written,” said Weirich, the district attorney of Shelby County. “.
Regarding the ban, supporters say Tennessee doctors are not currently offering pre-pubertal adolescent hormone therapy.
Proponents of the ban on sports teams could hardly cite local cases in Tennessee or across the country where transgender athletes are seen to have a competitive advantage. They argue that the rules provide a fair playing field.
Ally Chapman, mother and advocate of transgender sons, said the new law would signal a bad signal.
“I don’t know how to see it other than telling people that it’s about oppression, domination, and power,’you don’t exist,” she said.
Proponents say it will be important in the coming years. Many fear that legislative barrage will continue.
“The signal is,’Hey, see what we can do. This is the roadmap,” Chapman said. “They aren’t over.”
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Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City, Utah.
