The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a measure that would clear the way for private citizens and businesses to discriminate against same-sex couples.
House Bill 1473 asserts that government agencies alone are required to recognize the legality of same-sex unions as codified in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision.
The measure also states that “private citizens and organizations are not bound by the Fourteenth Amendment” or its due process and equal protection clauses. In reality, the justices ruled both applied to same-sex couples.
The House bill passed 68-24 on Feb. 19 and is currently awaiting action in the Tennessee Senate.
During debate on the House floor, the bill’s co-sponsor said the legislation is not an effort to discriminate against anyone but to emphasize the difference between governmental and individual responsibilities under federal statutes.
Gina Bulso
“Members, this is a bill that does not change existing law. It simply clarifies existing law … in our Tennessee code,” Republican Rep. Gino Bulso said. The clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment “are not limitations on the power of private citizens, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that very thing consistently.”
But opponents of the measure said Tennessee has no right to pass laws qualifying federal laws and constitutional precedents.
John Ray Clemmons
“To characterize this, or mischaracterize this, as already the law and we’re simply clarifying it, is a gross exaggeration not only of the power of this body, but also what we’re attempting to do here, which is to deny humans — fellow citizens — equal rights,” said Democratic Rep. John Ray Clemmons.
“However you feel about this legislation or whatever the stated intent is, it’s inherently flawed. The spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment was to limit states’ power to protect the equality and rights and dignity of all human beings in this country.”
LGBTQ rights groups said the law could result in same-sex couples being unable to remain with partners who are hospitalized or being denied the right to open joint accounts in banks, WJHL TV reported.
“What (Rep. Bulso) is doing today is far more sinister and extensive than simply clarifying the law,” said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project. “Who passes a law to clarify the law? This is about taking back the recognition and the impact of the Obergefell decision today. But in its language, broadly about the Fourteenth Amendment, who knows what all it opens up? Does it get into questions of, ‘Well, maybe I don’t recognize your citizenship. Maybe I don’t recognize your marriage, and you’re not even a same-sex couple.’”
The legislation was actually just one of five anti-LGBTQ bills to emerge from the Tennessee House on Feb. 19, the Tennessee Lookout reported. They included:
- The “No Pride Flag or Month Act” barring state agents, volunteers or employees from displaying emblems of participating in events recognizing gay identity.
- The “Banning Bostock Act” exempting companies of 15 employees or less from anti-discrimination laws in firing based on LGBTQ status. The measure’s title references the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County.
- A bill exempting public school employees from having to use students’ preferred pronouns.
- A law preventing health care providers from asking minors questions related to gender identity.