Tennesseans challenge anti-gay state law
A group of local elected officials, individuals and LGBT rights organizations filed a lawsuit today in Davidson County Chancery Court, challenging the state’s recent passage of an anti-gay law.
House Bill 600 prohibits local municipalities and counties, including local school districts, from enacting local laws or school policies that protect LGBT people against discrimination.
The bill was passed earlier this year, just weeks after Nashville added sexual orientation and gender identity to an existing local anti-discrimination law. The new law also prohibits localities from protecting any other group that is not already protected under state law, which would include veterans and people with disabilities, among others.
“HB600 embodies an animus toward gay and transgender people so strong that the Tennessee legislature was willing to repeal policies protecting students against bullying and harassment and to make other groups suffer as well, merely to prevent gay and transgender citizens from obtaining needed protections,” the lawsuit says.
“This law is contrary to core Tennessee values,” said Abby R. Rubenfeld, the suit’s lead attorney. “Tennessee is the volunteer state — we help each other, we don’t single out certain Tennesseans who are deemed unworthy of help. Our legislators abused their power by preventing localities from assisting their own citizens. Rather than considering what is best for our state, they passed a law based on disapproval of gay and transgender people, which the Tennessee and U.S. Constitutions do not permit.”