Tennessee 'Don't Say Gay' Bill Advances In State Senate

A bill that would prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in the classroom before the ninth grade has advanced in Tennessee's Senate.

Sponsored by state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R), who unsuccessfully pushed the same measure for six years while serving in the House, the so-called "Don't Say Gay" bill would make it illegal for educators to discuss any sexual behavior apart from heterosexuality with students in kindergarten up through the eighth grade.

Members of the Tennessee Equality Project, a local gay rights organization which actively opposes the legislation, worry its passage would alienate certain children. ""It means [teachers] can't talk about gay issues or sexuality even with students who may be gay or have [a] gay family," said Ben Byers, a spokesman for the group.

Supporters, on the other hand, tout the importance of an "age appropriate" curriculum.

The measure underwent some complicated maneuvers before its passage in the state Senate. Jim Tracy (R), a member of the Senate Education Committee, argued the law was already in practice, as it's a misdemeanor to discuss any issues at school outside Tennessee's established "family life" program. Tracy thus proposed an amendment to Campfield's bill requiring the Board of Education to examine whether homosexuality is indeed being taught in the state's classrooms.

The Senate passed Tracy's amendment, and soon after, fellow Sen. Brian Kelsey (R) proposed a further revision to Campfield's bill, one that would explicitly exclude homosexuality from the state's family life curriculum. Kelsey's amendment cleared the Education Committee in a 6-3 vote Wednesday, with only Democrats opposing. The measure will now be sent to the Senate floor.

Campfield, 42 and unmarried, is no stranger to controversial legislation -- in the past, he's proposed issuing death certificates for aborted fetuses and permitting guns on college campuses.

He faced blogosphere backlash earlier this week after refusing to debate the "Don't Say Gay" bill with actor Del Shores unless Shores paid Campfield a $1,000 retainer fee. Shores asked the Tennessee Equality Project for help raising the funds, and the organization refused, replying in an email that the group cannot justify raising money for an event that would "financially benefit Sen. Campfield in his pursuit of anti-LGBT legislation."

Comments

[chiefpayne]

01:23 PM on 06/15/2011

I am very proud to be a Tennessean right now! Well done, Senate.

Now get this bill through and let's make it a LAW!

I LOVE being in Tennessee!

[BrendanBeery]

10:02 PM on 05/24/2011

This law is going down. Check my blog here if you're interested: http://beeryblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/anti-gay-staceys-law-in-tennessee-is-dead-on-arrival-in-federal-court/

[chiefpayne]

01:25 PM on 06/15/2011

We'll see.

See, all it does is prohibit teachers from discussing homosexuality in the classroom. THAT is not against federal law.

But thanks for playing. LOL

[ivyteainn]

02:00 PM on 05/24/2011

All this tells me is that I will never spent one cent in Tennessee or for anything related to that state again. I advise everyone else to do the same. Hit these people where they will feel it; in their pocketbooks..

[Julie Spencer]

09:45 PM on 05/24/2011

"Hit these people where they will feel it"? Tennessee is made up of a lot of people straight and gay, who live and raise families of all kinds. While we may not like this bill and we surely will fight it, proposing to bring destruction to our already fragile economy hurts the residents, not the government. You would be hurting the gay community, it's supporters and all other residents by boycotting our state. This is seriously one of the most ignorant comments I've ever read.

[chiefpayne]

01:26 PM on 06/15/2011

Good! You don't want to spend money here, we can LIVE with that.

No problem.

Hit us as hard as you like...we WON'T be changing our minds anytime soon.

[jensenge]

12:16 PM on 05/24/2011

I would not want a perverse lifestyle discussed in the classroom, possibly in a positive light, with my children or grandchildren present, certainly not before the ninth grade! The school system has no right to sell a sick twisted thing to our kids!

[Kaylynne Hoover]

06:18 PM on 05/27/2011

This is an extremely ignorant and disgusting comment. I made an account just to tell you that. Please educate yourself before your kids grow up to be as twisted as yourself

[chiefpayne]

01:28 PM on 06/15/2011

Um no, it is a very well thought out comment. In point of fact, I would not want my kids being exposed to this lifestyle either...and they will NOT be...even if I have to pull my kids OUT of public school and homeschool to ensure it.

Fortunately, my great legislature is ensuring I won't have to do that!

[JennaS]

08:42 AM on 05/24/2011

What? This is crazy!

[chiefpayne]

01:29 PM on 06/15/2011

LOL

Fine. Think that way if it helps you sleep at night.

But WE like it just the way it is, thanks.

[Roberto15]

05:37 AM on 05/21/2011

i just moved to TN and if they want to get past the stereotype of being backwards crackers they need to stop electing legislators who pass laws like this. Long way to go from what I have seen,

[Elroy Jetson]

07:19 AM on 05/24/2011

So tell me again, why did you move to Tennessee? You are more than welcome to leave again... free country you know...

[chiefpayne]

01:30 PM on 06/15/2011

If you don't like the way we live here, why did you move here in the first place? No jobs where you were? Higher taxes where you were?

Either learn to like it or leave...because we are NOT changing!

[douglassnow]

11:42 PM on 05/20/2011

Tennessee is, of course, one of the 23 states which practices physical violence against children in grade schools--coming in just after Alabama and Georgia in the number of children beaten by their fine grade school teachers, principals, superintendants, etc.--there's actually quite a list of people authorized to beat children in the Tennessee school system.. Perhaps they see corporal punishment as the obvious way to deal with any child who dares "not to be heterosexual." I'm sure, when I think about it, that that must be their plan. How else do you suppress something without allowing anyone to mention it?--A swift slap of the face.

[Julie Spencer]

09:47 PM on 05/24/2011

I have a child in the public school system here in TN, I've never heard of this, nor has physical violence been used as a punishment in our schools. Post proof that this is a used form of punishment.

[douglassnow]

09:45 PM on 05/27/2011

Google "corporal punishment in Tennessee schools"--That's how I found out about it. You will discover that Tennessee ranks fourth in the nation in the number of children "paddled," exceeded only by Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama--with 37,419 students paddled in Tennessee elementary, middle, and high schools during the 2002-2003 school year. That is 4.3% of enrollment.

[johnpw41042]

10:36 PM on 05/20/2011

Tennessee is just what the rest of the country will look like if the current crop of Puggies/Fundies/Baggers take full control. I wonder if Tennessee will have another Monkey Trial. Here in Northern Kentucky where the Creation Museum is located it would be just as bad as Tennesse if it were not for the rest of the Commonwealth. The so called Christians have way to much control over the GOP.

[unabnats]

10:34 AM on 05/14/2011

Why oh Why couldn't Lincoln let those states secede. A true tragedy for this country, they've been nothing but trouble ever since. After 100 years of segregation, and now stuff like this. I would agree with whoever wrote that people with brains and human kindness should move in, but being near those people living there now could lower my I.Q. Their stupidity is every bit, and then some, as "contagious" as they think Gayness is. Living in MA, I want to propose a Law forbidding the mention of TN, except in a negative light.

[RaRo12]

12:56 PM on 05/20/2011

Not only is it supremely ignorant to make such an absurd generalization about a state of over 6 million, but I am personally hurt by your accusations. As a citizen of Tennessee, I am often extremely disappointed by my state legislature, but that is not for lack of effort on the part of the powerful liberal youth and many intelligent leaders. What you didn't hear about were hundreds of TN High School students protesting against this bill most mornings before school for weeks. We wrote letters and made phone calls everyday. We tried our damnedest to help a few ignorant legislators to see reason. Unfortunately this bill passed through the Senate today (19 yay, 11 nay). It will now move on to the House of Representatives, and we won't give up. For the sake of all the people like you around the country counting Tennessee out, and turning hate against hate, we will continue to fight this bill and to attempt to make our state a better place. I hope that you can say that you've committed yourself as fully to a cause as my hundreds of peers and myself have. It is a privilege to participate in a vibrant democracy, which is thriving in Tennessee. I realize that your comment was lighthearted, but be careful how you might be devaluing an entire movement and the struggles of hundreds of passionate youth. As we have on our t-shirts, "Tennessee is not this backwards".

[thekiki89]

09:45 PM on 05/20/2011

Cosign! Remember the Rapture is tomorrow, so hopefully his 'righteous' butt gets swept up along with others like him...then maybe the South can get some semblance of credibility again.

[unabnats]

10:18 AM on 05/14/2011

As Pat Robinson would say, if it were the other way around, the floods in Memphis are Gods punishment for passing this Law. And believe me, those thumpers would say that. So, I declare it so now. God told me himself.

[delihound]

02:30 PM on 05/20/2011

Actually, it would be Memphis is flooded because we are the Democratic stronghold in the state and our reps opposed this bill. I am embarrassed by TN. Memphis should secede from TN, we get ignored by Nashville and the rest of the state 90% of the time anyway.

[RaRo12]

02:53 PM on 05/20/2011

Davidson County (Nashville) is consistently democratic. We are not your enemy. We were the ones fighting this bill.

[chiefpayne]

01:35 PM on 06/15/2011

If that is how you feel, I guess you could be annexed by Arkansas. Whatever.

And you get ignored by Nashville and the rest of the state because your area is the MOST liberal of a relatively conservative state.

That's JUST the way it is. And those of us in Nashville LIKE it!

[unabnats]

10:13 AM on 05/14/2011

He just looks like the type of guy who in his youth threw rocks at the freedom riders.

[unabnats]

10:10 AM on 05/14/2011

remember this was the state of the "monkey trial". And the creationistas won that. Things haven,t changed much there in 85 years. Make that 200 years.

[cjzydeco]

07:45 PM on 05/13/2011

Are educators just supposed to stand by and allow a naive, bigoted child to harass and degrade his or her gay peers simply because of his or her "right" to hold a religious prejudice? Or does the TN Senate think the harassing child should be punished without telling the offending child what he or she has done wrong? ("Now Johnny, what you did was wrong and offensive, but I can't talk about why...") Or are they implying that educators should drag the parent of the bigoted child to school every time the child yells "f@gg0t" at the top of their lungs in the hallway or gym, and "hope" that the parents who raised him or her to have those feelings towards homosexuals will explain why such behavior is inappropriate and discourage it in the future? Ha! If it wasn't so sad, it might be funny!

[cjzydeco]

09:36 PM on 05/13/2011

I have never understood the trembling FEAR that SOME (certainly NOT anywhere close to most, but some) Christians have in regards to science, evolution, homosexuality, magic (Harry Potter), etc. The measure of your FAITH, which includes the beliefs one holds IN SPITE of DOUBT and TEMPTATION, is weak indeed if you (or your child) cannot be exposed to anything contrary without fear of losing said faith. Jesus was led (the "divine" passive voice is used, implying he was led by God) into the desert to face temptation, and it had the result of making Jesus' faith and his ministry that much stronger. Yet the ultra-conservative religious right wants to cleanse the world of all that they misguidedly consider "other" (i.e. sinful, blasphemous, unorthodox, sacrilegious, etc), as if doing so is somehow following the teachings of Christ.

And what they can't eliminate, they want to sweep under the rug, as if the ostrich mantra of "outta sight, outta mind" is a perception they are entitled to compel tolerant, love-thy-neighbor-type folks to adopt.

[unabnats]

10:22 AM on 05/14/2011

Actually, these types expect the teacher to join in and attack the gay kid, w/o mentioning anything except that he's "not heterosexual". I assume "not heterosexual' is allowed, if said in a derogatory manner of course.

[chiefpayne]

01:41 PM on 06/15/2011

The teacher would be removed for not stopping bullying.

Your bias is showing.

[Amy Lindelof]

07:37 PM on 05/12/2011

Rebulicans pass another jobs bill! Wait, what?