HRC Blog

From Chris Edelson, HRC's state legislative director: State legislative sessions are heating up across the country.  On the positive side, that means legislation aimed at improving the lives of LGBT people has been introduced.  For example,  in New England, states like Maine and Vermont are currently considering marriage bills while, over 5,000 miles away, Hawaii's legislature considers a civil unions bill.  The Washington state senate voted in favor of expanding rights and benefits for domestic partners and legislators in Colorado are backing legislation that would provide relationship recognition for lesbian and gay couples.  Meanwhile, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and other states are considering anti-discrimination legislation that would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Unfortunately, there is also dangerous legislation in many states: proposed constitutional amendments to prohibit marriage and other forms of relationship recognition in Maryland, North Carolina, West Virginia, and elsewhere; anti-adoption legislation in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.  HRC field staff has been on the ground in several states (for example, New Mexico, Maine, New York), and Associate Director of Diversity Allyson Robinson has testified in support of anti-discrimination legislation in New Hampshire and Maryland. We've also been asking our members and supporters to contact their legislators and participate in lobby days with our friends at state groups across the country.  We know how vital it is for our legislators to hear first-hand why equality matters. It's worth calling attention to a bill in Tennessee that uniquely grabs attention as an example of legislation threatening to break new ground in terms of extremism.  House Bill 821, introduced by State Rep. Stacey Campfield, will be debated in the Tennessee House K-12 Subcommittee on Wednesday, March 18.  Chris Sanders at the Tennessee Equality Project calls it the "Don't Say Gay" bill because it would provide that "no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality." This is, quite simply, an attempt to control what teachers and schools teach.  Consider what effects this bill could have if it becomes law:  teachers could be prohibited from even mentioning the fact that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people exist.  It is quite possible that school libraries would fail to comply with the law if their shelves contained books with lesbian, gay, or bisexual characters.  It's not clear what would happen if a student asked a question in class about laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation--the teacher might have to respond that he or she is not allowed to discuss such subjects. This legislation raises serious issues of bias as well as free speech. It reminds us, not that we need reminding, that there are people with very extreme anti-LGBT goals. These goals apparently include controlling what teachers and students say in the classroom. TEP is doing great work shining a spotlight on this extreme legislation, as are HRC political co-chairs Katie Hill, Mark Siedlecki, Cole Wakefield and others in Tennessee who have told their legislators why this bill is so dangerous.