The General Assembly has kicked into high gear as we cross the halfway mark of session. This week featured hours-long debates, increasingly punitive bills and protests outside the capitol.
One of the most highly contested issues was a bill that would punish school boards and librarians who allow obscene material into schools. But we will start off with another bill that allies of the LGBTQ community say alienates an entire group of people.
Policymakers want LGBTQ issues kept out of schools
A push to have Black history be taught in schools started nearly a century ago, in 1926. It took until 1976, 50 years later, for the United States to officially recognize what is now called Black History Month.
Well, now another sector of people wants to be recognized — the LGBTQ community.
After taking office, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month. But Republican lawmakers are pushing back by trying to eradicate any mention of the group in K-12 schools. Rep. Bruce Griffey, R-Paris, is sponsoring a bill doing just that.
“It’s not anything anti-gay,” Griffey said. “We just feel like this is not an appropriate topic for schools, and I don’t think most parents want this in our public schools.”
During the committee hearing on the bill, Rep. Bob Freeman, D-Nashville, fought back on the issue.
“Not including a major group of our community in those libraries to be able to be seen and supported is, I believe, a failure if this passes,” Freeman said.
The legislation passed but received several no votes from Griffey’s fellow Republicans.
“Open season on librarians”
Republicans are continuing to challenge what can be read, taught and discussed in K-12 classrooms this week with a bill that would threaten libraries and school districts with misdemeanors for books containing obscene material.
Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, says he hasn’t seen an attack on public education like this in a generation.
“I mean, it’s open season on librarians. You can’t make this stuff up.”
His counterpart in the House, Rep. Vincent Dixie added that it doesn’t help teacher recruitment.
“To think our librarians are under attack, teachers are under attack at a time when we should be supporting them and trying to recruit better teachers to come to our state because we want to have the best educational system in America,” Dixie said.
Other bills to regulate school libraries and curriculum this session include:
- A bill, H.B. 2154, requiring schools to post their library catalogues and come up with a process to routinely vet them for objectionable content
- A bill, S.B. 2407, that would allow parents to review and possibly change a teacher’s curriculum
- The aforementioned bill, H.B. 0800, to restrict lesson plans from including LGBTQ themes
Tennessee Republicans push to place restrictions on abortion pills
Most Tennesseans have to travel outside of their county in order to receive a surgical abortion. During the pandemic, telemedicine helped some pregnant people in other states save money by allowing them to meet with a doctor over a video call, and to pick up abortion-inducing pills at a pharmacy. Now, Tennessee lawmakers focused on restricting abortions are placing penalties on prescribers of these pills.
“It don’t think this bill gets to the root of the problem as described,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, who voted no along with the committee’s other Democrat. “It would really just make a difference on where the patient gets the medication from.”
The proposed law, H.B. 2416, would require physicians to examine a patient in-person prior to providing an abortion-inducing drug and conduct a follow-up visit between seven and 14 days after the procedure. A physician who disregards these rules could be charged with a felony and face up to 20 years in prison.
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