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Tennessee Senate Has Passed Don’t Say Gay Bill

Posted by on May 20, 2011 in Oh Hell No! | 38 comments

Shame on you, Tennessee.

We told you earlier in the year about Senator Stacey Campfield’s Don’t Say Gay Bill being passed by a Tennessee Senate committee. Today, the entire Senate has voted to approve the bill. The Don’t Say Gay Bill, which will prohibit Tennessee schoolchildren from even uttering the words “gay” or “homosexual,” is just two stops away from becoming the Don’t Say Gay Law.

The AP reports:

NASHVILLE, TN – (AP) – A measure that would prohibit the teaching of homosexuality in Tennessee public schools has passed the Tennessee Senate.

Under the proposal approved 20-11 on Friday, any instruction or materials at a public elementary or middle school will be “limited exclusively to age-appropriate natural human reproduction science.” Republican Senate sponsor Stacey Campfield of Knoxville says “homosexuals don’t naturally reproduce.”

Campfield says current state curriculum is not clear on what can be taught.

The companion bill has been withdrawn from consideration in the House. But its sponsor has said he will bring it up again next year if the Senate version passes.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Tennessee would become the first state to enact such legislation if the proposal passes.

The AP report also points out that students with same-sex parents will be unfairly targeted by the bill, and legally prevented from even discussing their parents while at school. They aren’t the only ones being victimized by this bill.

Gay students struggling to come out will be unable to discuss their problems with trusted teachers, gay teachers will be legally prevented from talking about their spouse, and guidance counselors will be required by law not to dare speak up to help a suicidal gay teenager who is being abused and outcast at home.

This isn’t hyperbole. This is becoming law in the state.

We’re absolutely mortified that grown adults could even think up the idea of this bill in the first place. The goal of this bill is to pretend gay people don’t exist. If gay students end their lives due in part to this literally state-sponsored hate against them, they will only be helping Tennessee achieve it’s goal.

We’re speechless. Please share this story with your families and friends. Please post it to Facebook and Twitter. We have got to show our brothers and sisters in Tennessee that we are there for them, that we are mourning the passage of this bill, and that we will be here for them the second they turn 18 and hightail it out a state that would rather see them dead then have to hear someone even say the word gay.