If this situation isn’t bad enough, this year, nearly a dozen discriminatory bills have been introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly. Already, Governor Lee has two such bills into law: SB 228 an anti-transgender sports ban and SB 1229, a sweeping anti-LGBTQ education bill. In addition to the aforementioned bills, the following bills are also on their way to becoming law, if we don’t do anything to stop them:

• HB 1233 (SB 1367) “Student Bathroom Bill 2.0” - this bill will prohibit students from using restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
• HB 1027 (SB 126) - this bill would prohibit trans youth from receiving life-saving, best practice medical care.
• HB 1182 (SB 1224) - this bill would intimidate transgender Tenneseans from using restrooms and requires businesses to post offensive signs on their restrooms.

These proposed laws aim to restrict LGBTQ equality and specifically target transgender Tennesseans. Just this week, Tennessee state lawmakers advanced legislation that requires schools to notify parents before teaching any content related to gender or sexuality, whether in history class, literature, sex education or otherwise — which could effectively erase LGBTQ people and our experiences from classroom discussion. In addition to preventing students from receiving a well-rounded education, this means legendary works from authors such as Harvey Milk, James Baldwin and Oscar Wilde are now suppressed from classrooms.

This is our final chance to prevent discrimination from gaining a chokehold on our great state. Please contact Gov. Bill Lee at (615) 741-2001 and urge him to VETO all anti-equality legislation. Please consider asking three of your family members or friends to follow your example. Together, we can STOP the spread of hate in Tennessee.