Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is already beginning to implement the law.
A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.
Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.
Anyone who violates the new ordinance is barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at public events for two years. Anyone who violates the ordinance “in the presence of minors” is barred for five years.
An ACLU-backed challenge to the ordinance has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped city officials from implementing the measure. Last Monday, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss removing all books that might potentially violate the ordinance from the public library. The resolution was met with widespread outcry from city residents.
“When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert demanded during the Monday county meeting.
Murfreesboro city officials have already used the ordinance to ban four books that discuss LGBTQ themes. In August, the county library board pulled the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.
The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups. When it takes effect next year, children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books.
Library director Rita Shacklett worried in August that the new rules would prevent students from accessing books they need for a class. She explained that many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, are now classified as “adult.”
It’s unclear if the county steering committee plans to pull books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which includes multiple depictions of heterosexual sexual conduct.
Murfreesboro’s new ordinance is part of a much larger wave of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and the rest of the country. In the past year, the so-called Volunteer State became the first state to try to ban drag performances. That law was overturned in court.
In March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it, essentially gutting marriage equality. The bill was introduced in the Senate but deferred until next year.
link: https://newrepublic.com/post/176915/tennessee-town-ban-public-homosexuality
archive link: https://archive.ph/LFMMK
I want a government that minds it’s own business. Education and protection if human rights is it’s business. You pretty obviously despise both of those. Privatizing education just means that anti-life antichrists such as yourself are allowed to brainwash children and chuck them into coal mines. We did it your way already and saw the result.
We’re done here because you lose. I have gay friends; gay clients; a gay family member; and a trans son of a client. I defend all of them against the likes of you and your violent death cult religion.
Minding its own business is by definition not what the government does. Yes, there obviously should be limits on what they’re allowed to do (which is why we have the Bill of Rights in the constitution), but regulating public order and trying to prevent or at least curb the worst predations among people is literally what the government was created for. And I’m not a big fan of it either, but until we figure out a way to raise all children peacefully and without abuse, it sadly appears to be the best we can do.
And no, education was never intended to be the government’s business. Public safety, regulation of commerce, and national defense was. The federal government didn’t even get involved in education until the 19th century. Public schools, where they existed, were operated by the cities or counties they were in.
See the thing is, people constantly disagree about what the best way to do anything whatsoever is. But nowadays we have this weird idea that everyone everywhere must have everything the same. A black kid from the swamps in Louisiana should have the same chance at becoming a rocket scientist as a white kid from Massachusetts whose parents work at MIT. Except it simply isn’t possible to guarantee any of that. Nor is it necessary in order for everyone to be happy.
If California wants to become a sanctuary state for transgender people, and the local residents agree with that, why shouldn’t they? Conversely, if a small town in Tennessee doesn’t want homosexuality in public, and the residents agree, why shouldn’t they be allowed to do that, too? You don’t have to live there if you don’t like it, just like I don’t have to live in California.
But no, that doesn’t work for you, does it? If the people in Tennessee want to do something you don’t agree with, you have to get upset and start a whole damn argument on the Internet about it, even though you probably don’t even live anywhere near there. That’s the mark of a petty tyrant, a wannabe authoritarian who can’t be happy unless everyone thinks and acts exactly like he wants them to. You’re not fooling anyone with this nonsense. You’re just a sad, miserable cunt who wants everyone to share in his misery. But you know what, I hope you find happiness anyways. And by God, I hope that it doesn’t involve the sexual abuse of any children.
Sounds like justification for sundown towns. Also sounds like justification for all the children that christians killed in Idaho by allowing “parental rights” and “religious freedom” to overrule basic common sense medical treatment. See, we have to protect human rights nationally because we have seen that when you are allowed to have “yer freedumz”, you rape your daughters, kill your kids, lynch “others”, and absolutely invoke authoritarian rule. We have seen you do this over and over again. Just in my lifetime you denied civil rights and attacked them with dogs and firehoses. You were given every freedom you could ask for and you used it for hatred, oppression and evil. And you all claimed holy righteousness while you fucked kids in their mouths and their asses and then accused others of this just like you have in this conversation. We know who Pepe represents. We know what “Pepe lives matter” means. You’re not fooling anyone here. You dont need more freedom; you need more government oversight and regulation. It’s what you earned. All those laws you despise were written in blood. They didnt appear out of nowhere.
Oh, so now YOU want to regulate how people live their lives. Not too long ago you told me government should stay out of it. Funny how the tables turn, isn’t it.
Also, I hope you realize how ridiculous it is to accuse conservatives of raping and molesting kids and then saying the solution is to teach them how to be gay in school. Because encouraging them to accept a lifetime of repeated sexual trauma is somehow better? You’re a sick and demented individual, and you should not be allowed to spend time around any kids.
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