Tennessee now will recognize June as “Nuclear Family Month” instead of following the national trend of recognizing Pride Month for the LGBTQ community.
Gov. Bill Lee signed House Joint Resolution 182 making the change April 9, two days after the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed it. The bill was introduced last year but was not passed until this year.
Randy Davis, executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, voiced support for the bill: “Any bright light that shines on the picture of God’s design for family is welcomed. I appreciate the resolution signed by Gov. Lee because it will do exactly that.”
The action does not create a state holiday, only an official designation.
The bill says: “The nuclear family, consisting of one husband, one wife and any biological, adopted or fostered children, is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world.”
“The nuclear family … is God’s design for familial structure.”
It declares the nuclear family “was the basic building block of Tennessee’s society” and “built the United States of America and created prosperity within our nation.”
The bill also includes a flurry of statistic accusations against “fatherless families” and the World Health Organization and the United Nations, which the bill says promote “humanistic, globalist ideologies … that fight for population control through the means of promoting sterilization and abortion practices.”
The bill claims the traditional nuclear family “is under attack in our beloved state and nation, and it is our responsibility to uplift, protect and support values that help Tennessee prosper.”
A spokesperson for GLAAD said the bill is exclusionary.
“Resolutions like this do more to reveal the cluelessness of elected officials whose own families and those of their constituents have various family dynamics and structures,” the spokesperson told The Advocate. “The strongest families are grounded by love. Lawmakers trying to exclude and intentionally harm some families should be recognized as actively harming all by not focusing their time working for an inclusive Tennessee where all are welcome and can succeed.”
The resolution has no formal control over how Tennesseans celebrate in June. It merely expresses the sentiment of the Legislature.
In March, a bill that would have banned displaying Pride flags and other LGBTQ symbols in government buildings died in a Senate committee. The “No Pride Flag or Month Act” failed in the Senate State and Local Government Committee in a 3-3 vote, according to Nashville Scene.