Tennessee LGBTQ+ advocates urge governor to veto slate of bills 

Advocates for LGBTQ+ Tennesseans are urging Gov. Bill Lee to veto a slate of bills targeting their community, including one that specifies local government entities must refer to gender only as “male” or “female” or risk losing state funding. 

Senate Bill 936, sponsored by Sen. Paul Rose, a Tipton County Republican, mandates that state policy define gender as only two sexes based on anatomy at birth. 

“These bills aren’t abstract: they change how local governments operate and how people experience their communities,” said Metro Nashville Councilmember Brenda Gadd, vice-chair of the Metro Council LGBTQ Caucus during a Tuesday press conference.

In addition to the Metro Council LGBTQ Caucus, other groups urging a Lee veto include the Tennessee Equality Project, Nashville Pride, PFLAG Nashville and Trans Aid Nashville. 

An amendment to the bill from Chattanooga Republican Sen. Todd Gardenhire requires city councils, school boards and utility districts to revise existing ordinances or policies that say otherwise and prohibits them from adopting any measures that don’t comply with the bill.

Under the bill, which awaits Lee’s signature, a resident can file a complaint in chancery court against a jurisdiction in which they reside if they believe the local government agency has not complied with the law. 

If found to be in violation, the entity has 90 days to comply or it becomes ineligible to receive grant funds from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. 

Should the government entity or agency continue to failto comply, the state would withhold escalating increments of general fund revenueup to 20% of the total due.

Gardenhire could not be reached for comment but Rose said he filed the initial bill out of a commitment to his faith. 

“My faith and my reading of God’s word is very implicit that God created us as humans, male and female,” he said. “When you look at what’s going on in our world today there’s so much confusion and gender dysphoria — a generation struggling to determine what gender they are.”

The bill is the latest of several Tennessee Republicans passed to exert more control over municipalities, including the creation of a state-appointed board to oversee Memphis-Shelby County Schools, a measure to cut the Metro Nashville Council in half and one allowing state lawmakers to dissolve local airport authorities and appoint members. 

But it is also one of what has become a wide slate of bills aimed at limiting medical care and rights for LGBTQ+ people.

“Let’s be honest about what this is: This is government telling people ‘you are less, you are not seen and you are not protected,’” said Gadd, who described the recent legislative session as one of the most harmful to LGBTQ+ people in a decade.

Riley Gaines Act 

The “Women’s Safety and Protection Act,” colloquially known as the Riley Gaines Act, requires schools, shelters, and correctional facilities to base access on biological sex definitions of male and female. 

The measure is named for 26-year-old Sumner County resident Riley Gaines, who became an outspoken anti-transgender activist after tying for 5th place in a college swim competition with a trans woman.

Reporting information on transgender Tennesseans

Senate Bill 676, sponsored by Memphis Republican Sen. Brent Taylor, and its companion bill in the House, sponsored by Rep. Jeremy Faison, a Cosby Republican, has two parts. 

Under one, any Tennessee clinic accepting state funds that offers gender affirming care — including medications like puberty blockers — must also offer de-transitioning services. 

A second portion of the bill that has sparked outrage from LGBTQ+ advocates requires clinics performing any type of gender affirming care to report to the state information including the age and sex of the person receiving treatment, the county in which they live, type of medicine prescribed and a list of any mental health diagnoses or treatments the person may have had. 

Prohibition on TennCare payment for gender affirming care

Under a measure sponsored by Sen. Adam Lowe, a Calhoun Republican, and Rep. Kip Capley, a Summertown Republican, the state’s Medicaid program is prohibited from reimbursing health care providers for providing gender affirming care or treating patients for “any purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the individual’s sex and asserted identity.”

Lee has signed the  “Women’s Safety and Protection Act and the TennCare measure into law. He has not vetoed any bills during his two terms in office.