HRC Blog

In an apparent attempt to score cheap political points, Tenn. Governor Bill Haslam has ignored the business community and signed into law a bill that wipes out county and city anti-discrimination laws, despite the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry reversing their earlier support and now opposing the bill.

With many state legislatures facing adjournment dates in the next few weeks, anti-equality lawmakers around the country are ramping up attacks on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Harmful legislation has already passed in a few states and is advancing in others.

Last night marked a milestone moment for Nashville’s – and Tennessee’s – LGBT community. The Nashville/Davidson County Metro Council voted by the slimmest of margins to pass an ordinance requiring city government contractors to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their company nondiscrimination policies.

Many of us who are LGBT have endured poor treatment—slights, looks, subtle hostilities. Few of us have our homes burned down because of it. This is what appears to have happened several days ago to Carol Ann and Laura Stutte, long-time life partners who have been together for 15 years and are raising a daughter in the small town of Vonore, Tennessee, just south of Knoxville.

After more than a decade since it publicly opposed them, Tennessee-based FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX), #59 on the Fortune 500 will offer domestic partner benefits to its employees starting in 2012. When the city and county of San Francisco passed its groundbreaking Equal Benefits Ordinance in the late 1990s, which requires city contractors to provide equal benefits for same-sex partners as for different-sex spouses of employees, one of the most vocal opponents was FedEx.