Local and National Advocates Speak Out Against Tennessee Anti-Trans Legislation

Anti-Trans legislation clears Tennessee Senate, Moves on to House

By Selena J. Haynes

Year after year, GOP members of the Tennessee legislature bring forth several harmful, discriminatory bills aimed at the LGBTQ+ community coined “Slate of Hate” by the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP). This year is no exception and the first one to pass the state Senate is SB228/HB3 sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley (R) and Rep. Scott Cepicky (R). 

The bill will next go to the House for a vote. Local and national advocates held a virtual press conference at 10 am on Wednesday to speak against the bill going further. You can view the conference in its entirety at the end of the story.

Tennessee Voices Against Discrimination

Fox Schweiger began the conference by sharing his experiences as a trans man who grew up in East Tennessee. Currently a freshman in college, he began his transition at the beginning of his freshman year of high school. His friends and peers were supportive, but the administration and teachers were not. He was outed on multiple occasions and pulled into meetings with the highest level of administration officials in an effort to intimidate him to not use the bathrooms on campus. He was forced into counseling and was told his existence made people feel uncomfortable and that the school’s community wasn’t ready to accept him. Teachers made fun of his body. Because it was a private school, he didn’t have the same protections as public school attendees. He was banned from playing sports but was still required to have two sports credits to graduate. 

“Experiencing discrimination every single day has extreme effects on a person’s health,” said Schweiger. “I experienced both physical and mental health struggles that stemmed from the constant stress of existing in an environment that was explicitly opposed to my very existence.”

Schweiger had a good support system and still experienced these struggles. He went on to say that other trans kids without a support system will experience even more harm.

Chris Sanders, Executive Director of TEP, shared the experience Julie, a proud mother of a trans child in Clarksville, had when her son transitioned. During her son’s transition, they met with several professionals – a general doctor, an endocrinologist, a psychiatrist and a counselor. Julie shared, “The professionals followed ethical standards of care put in place by many organizations including AMA, AAP, and WPATH. The legislators could reach out to professionals, like the Vanderbilt Transgender Clinic right there in Nashville or have conversations with transgender people. Finally, are there any other medical standards of care that the Tennessee legislature is proposing to govern? It seems like it’s a discriminatory bill when the transgender population ranges from 0.7% to 1.5% according to the Williams Institute. Please consider best practices in proposing bills, like our highly trained medical professionals do when treating their transgender patients.”

Dr. Leticia Flores from Knoxville explained why she advocates against the bill: “I fight these bills because as a parent/professional, I know these youth and families are not the monsters that the legislators make them out to be. The youth are simply trying to be happy and content with themselves, and their parents are doing their absolute best to care for their children — like any other good parent would do. These bills are bad solutions in search of nonexistent problems.”

The personal experiences of Tennesseans are, unfortunately, quite often overlooked. That doesn’t make them any less relative. 

The Cost of Bad Legislation

As seen in North Carolina with the passage of the ‘Bathroom Bill’ in 2016, there was a huge backlash. If the bill hadn’t been rescinded in early 2017, an Associated Press analysis projected a $3.76 billion loss in business over a dozen years. If the Anti-Trans legislation bill should be passed, the state would be put in a similar position.

According to Joe Woolley of the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Tennessee has already experienced loss from discriminatory legislation in January 2020 when 14 events scheduled for Nashville were canceled due to the passage of the adoption bill. It’s not just Nashville that is affected though. The state overall is tourism heavy. From tourism to conventions, bad legislation can and will affect the economy.

“Competition amongst cities and state for tourism business is feverish and our communities cannot afford a mark against them when they’re bidding for events because of the headlines the state makes on anti-lgbt discrimination,” said Woolley.

Next Steps

Stay informed. 

Visit https://www.tnep.org/ or follow https://www.facebook.com/groups/tnequality.

Visit https://nashvillelgbtchamber.org/ or follow https://www.facebook.com/NashLGBTcc.

Contact your state senate and house representatives to voice your concerns. Find your legislator: https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/Apps/fmlv3/districts.aspx.