If there ever was a time to boycott a state, now would be it. On Monday, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a law that allows county clerks to refuse to marry same-sex, transgender, and mixed-race couples if they disagree with the union, The New Republic reports.
The bill, which now moves to the state Senate, reads: “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”
In December, President Joe Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act, but the new law in Tennessee takes advantage of religiously affiliated organizations’ long refusal to issue licenses for same-sex marriages.
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State Rep. Monty Fritts sponsored the bill. According to the Memphis Flyer, Fritts told the Children and Family Affairs Subcommittee Tuesday that a “big reason” he put forth the bill was to help block elder abuse.
“When you look at some of the research that we have found on this, that … young folks are trying to marry older folks to get to their financial accounts … I think there are other things that we need to do.”
State Rep. Jason Power countered Fritts by saying that the bill was nothing more than a “solution looking for a problem” and “government overreach.”
Tennessee Stands, a conservative religious group, offered its support and hope in favor of passing the bill.
“Our religious beliefs are sacred, and the exercise of those beliefs is a right that has been given to us by God and is protected by our Constitution,” read a letter Tennessee Stands sent to its followers. “Therefore, all those who perform marriage ceremonies in the state of Tennessee should not be forced by law to perform a ceremony that falls outside of their religious beliefs. They should have the ability to object to participating, without fear of reprisal.”
Many supporters of full marriage equality have expressed fear that Biden’s Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t go far enough. The act protects the laws of the 15 states that permit same-sex marriage, but it equally protects the laws of 35 states that restrict LGBTQ people’s rights, as MSNBC reports. Essentially, it gives religious groups and states way too much room for bias against LGBTQ people.
The passage of this latest bill is just adds to the long list of attacks on the state’s LGBTQ community by its conservative Republican governor.
Gov. Bill Lee has been at war with drag performers in his state. He’s openly said he plans to sign a recently passed bill restricting “adult cabaret performances” and banning gender-affirming care for the state’s minors. This is the same governor who himself was photographed wearing women’s clothing while in college.
The Tennessee ACLU writes that the anti-transgender bills are not only in violation of the First Amendment to express oneself, but they’re “written so broadly and vaguely that they would allow government officials to censor performers based on their own subjective viewpoints of what they deem appropriate on any given day,” and describes the bills as a “malicious attempt to remove LGBTQ people from public life. These bans are being fueled by the same paranoia banning books and censoring teachers.”
A recent statement from Human Rights Campaign legal director Sarah Warbelow reads:
“Instead of focusing on the issues that Tennesseans actually care about, radical politicians are wasting their time and using their power to target the LGBTQ+ community… These bills are not about protecting children, and they are not about religious freedom…They are about stripping away the basic human rights that LGBTQ+ people have fought for over decades … and labeling us dangerous.”
It’s worth noting that this is the same state legislature that voted on a bill in April 2022 that wouldn’t name a legal age for marriage, leading opponents to ask about child sex abuse.
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