Tennessee Passes Bill Allowing The Bullying of LGBT Students In The Name Of ‘Religious Freedom’

[G_j]

http://www.thegailygrind.com/2014/03/25/tennessee-passes-bill-allowing-bullying-lgbt-students-name-religious-freedom/

March 25, 2014 • By Adrian Garcia

Tennessee governor Bill Haslam has just received a bill that allows and encourages anti-gay bullying in the name of “religious freedom.”

The Tennessee “Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act” allows students to use religion in any manner they choose, and protects their use of religion.

The ACLU warns that the bill, SB 1793/HB 1547, “crosses the line from protecting religious freedom into creating systematic imposition of some students’ personal religious viewpoints on other students.”
“Should this pass, students with a range of religious beliefs, as well as non-believers, would likely routinely be required to listen to religious messages or participate in religious exercises that conflict with their own beliefs,” the ACLU adds. “Conversely, if a student of a minority religious faith (e.g., a Buddhist, a Wiccan, etc.) or a non-believer were to obtain a ‘position of honor,’ as defined under this bill, that student would be permitted to subject all classmates to prayer and proselytizing specific to his or her faith tradition in connection with school events. In both cases, parents would have no recourse to ensure that their children were not coerced into such religious exercise.”

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[LuvNewcastle]

1. I am so fucking sick of fundies using their religious freedom

as an excuse to be bigots and shove their beliefs in people's faces. Unfortunately, we have a Supreme Court that can't be depended upon to tell them to cut it out when they go too far. You can't give those fuckers an inch.

I've lived in the South all my life, and having to deal with fundies and their madness all the time has built up a lot of animosity toward them. I try to remember not to put them all in the same category, but when they try to influence me with their beliefs, I can get pretty hostile sometimes. They just don't see how hostile they are when they constantly bombard everyone around them with their bullshit. They have no respect for people with other beliefs, so it's hard to have respect for them.

[Tsiyu]

2. I am so fucking sick of the TN legislature

it's like living in the goddamned Dark Ages here. We've got no funds for education, for dentistry for the poor (you should see the teeth around here, where we have no dentists ) , no jobs programs.

Keep em poor sick and stupid is Tennessee's Official Motto. But we've got money to bully children.

These are buffoons, savages with Jethro Bodeen accents who have so much money and time to fuck off, all they do is think up new ways to hurt the least of these, the "other," the sick, the poor.

I cannot express adequately how much I hate living in this state, where the citizens let their politicians do whatever they want as long as it's hurting someone else.

The day I leave the South will be the most glorious day of my life.

Fuck HASLAM and FUCK our nasty, evil, corrupt, pig-fucking Tennessee politicians.

I know I won't have to do any time in hell; I survived living in the South.

[LuvNewcastle]

12. I live in Mississippi, so I understand exactly where you're coming from.

What gets me is that there are a whole lot of people here who are fed up with all that nonsense, but hardly anyone speaks up. Like I said, I'm from the South and I've been here all my life, but I have never understood why so many people are silent about all this bullshit. I believe they don't realize that those rabid fundies aren't the majority down here, and if everybody else would speak out and stick together, we could turn it around.

I guess I'll never understand it because I've always been the type of person who will tell someone to their face if I think they're an idiot and full of shit. But the whole reason why nothing ever changes is that so many stay silent. That's why things were so bad down here in the 50's and 60's -- no one would speak out. I guess it's always been that way down here and maybe it always will be.

[Tsiyu]

21. Yes, it's really strange - the timidity and apathy over politics in the South

There seems to be a disconnect in the mind - that they are subjects rather than free people, that it's bad to care too much or to know too much or to want to change anything.

It's very frustrating, but it's like they just want royalty to do all the thinking for them - they want kings and queens, not representative government. There is no "work ethic" when it comes to expecting more from their elected representatives. They let their politicians get away with all sorts of evil here ( Can you say Scott DesJarlais? )

It always cracks me up when I hear the Southern "revolutionaries" yammering about secession and such. These people have not even tamed and controlled their ELECTED officials, yet they will take on the world?

Johnny Reb claims he wouldn't lose this time around, but I've got news for him: ALEC and Grover Norquist already invaded the South while y'all were sleeping. And GRover and ALEC have defeated you without a single shot fired.

[AngryOldDem]

4. And I'm sick of them then turning around and claiming they're being "persecuted."

I think that's the other way around. They're running the show here more than most of us realize. And not to change the subject, I have a sinking feeling that the Hobby Lobby case will prove that definitively.

But that said, you don't necessarily need two working brain cells in order to have a seat in the state legislature. That has been made abundantly clear to me where I'm at, with some of the crazy shit passed here this year.

[LuvNewcastle]

10. Oh yeah, the 'persecution' argument probably pisses me off more than anything.

They're seeking legal permission to harass and intimidate gay people and everyone else different from them, yet they're being 'persecuted.' Hypocrisy is one of the absolute worst traits I can think of, and fundies are masters of it.

[G_j]

19. agreed

and I have to say it demonstrates nothing but lack of faith on their part. These people function out of a deep fear that their religion is nothing but hot air and wishful thinking. Their inability to admit their own insecurity leads them to project that they are being persecuted. If they really had the "faith" they wouldn't even think in those terms. Fear is a religion.

[mdbl]

5. I have no respect for them

They are completely shallow, self-serving and controlling. What's there to respect?

[AngryOldDem]

23. I have no respect for them, either.

Their actions and beliefs are so, so far from what Christ taught. Jesus wept, indeed.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. Theocracy 101: Creeping Christian Dominionism

They're coming for YOU, next...
(whoever YOU are!)

[Nanjing to Seoul]

6. Don't say anything bad about the south. Southerners on DU will accuse you regional bigotry

even if you're right about the things you say.

It happens to me all the time.

[cali]

7. discussing the south is a delicate thing here at DU

there are, I'm sure, many good things about those states, and they sure aren't the only states with legislatures that put forth and pass laws that hurt poor people and minorities and children, but on the whole, the south is a region with some of the most troubling politics, most evident bigotry toward minorities and LGBT folks, and the nurturing ground for some of the worst politicians on the national stage.

bashing the south happens pretty regularly here- and I'm sure I've been guilty of it myself- is not so much in word here at du, in thought.

I get how people can feel defensive about it.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

11. I'm from Arizona. PEople rip on Arizona and I agree. Southerners need to toughen up their skin

Politics is not for the weak at heart.

[OldRedneck]

14. I'm a Southerner and I'm sick of the biblethumpers and racists

Born in Wilkinson County, MS in the early 1940's. Grew up between MS and East Tennessee. Small college in Alabama. Lived in SW MS, the MS Delta, East Tennessee, SW VA, E AL. My g-g-granddaddy owned almost 100 slaves and my g-granddaddy was head of the county KKK.

I left the Baptist Church when the preacher preached a sermon praising the murderers who bombed a black church in Birmingham as doing the Lord's work to keep the races separate -- and have never looked back.

My sainted grandmother told me never to say the word "hate" -- so let's say I strongly dislike the biblethumpers and I take every opportunity to belittle them, mock them, and show up their ignorance.

If my Southern DU cousins don't like this attitude, they are welcome to kiss my redneck ass.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

18. Amen brother. +1000

[G_j]

20. right on

a breath of sanity..

[asjr]

8. Our governor is not the brightest

bulb in the chandelier and probably will sign it. I think the Hobby Lobby mess is going to help sprout the idea that this is the way to go. A great many here will vote for anyone who speaks about his religion, mother and children and will lower taxes. Mostly those that listen do not pay any taxes at all. When the people running for office speak of religion it is always Christianity. I have heard too many times--"I'm voting for so and so, he is a good Christian."

[eShirl]

9. the fundies inch ever closer to imposing their "sharia law"

[LynneSin]

13. Well this isn't suprising. I mean if these were FETUSES we'd never allow it

But since they're kids then who gives a *)#%

[Botany]

15. Can I move there and become a Pagan Druid Warrior who doesn't like Christians?

[Tsiyu]

22. PLEASE!!!!!

We have lots of trees, here! And we can make mead with the scuppernongs.

[Jackpine Radical]

26. Nah. Ya need honey for mead.

Scuppernongs are only good for wine.

[One_Life_To_Give]

16. But can we stone the adulterers, divorce's etc? nt

[G_j]

17. also at the link,

According to TheNewCivilRightsMovement:

At a basic level, a student could merely write “God” on a chemistry test as the answer to a question asking to where water comes from. A student could also stand in class and say their religion says that gay people are sinners and going to hell, and that speech would be legally protected. The bill states “a student may express beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions. A student would not be penalized or rewarded on account of the religious content of the student’s work.”

Creationists of course will love the bill.

But the more sinister part of the bill forces all students to be subjected to the religious beliefs of the popular kids.

Tennessee’s “Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act” actually mandates that schools allow students the use of public school facilities — including the school’s public address system, classrooms and school assemblies — and makes schools “[p]rovide the forum in a manner that does not discriminate against a student’s voluntary expression of a religious viewpoint.”

An evangelical student, or example, could preach the gospel during a science class, or “witness” during English. Attacks on LGBT people and same-sex marriage are automatically protected under this bill, offering anti-gay students a state-sposored license to bully. And of course, a student could claim they worship Satan and subject their classmates to that “religious viewpoint” as well.

The bill, of course, likely violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, but that rarely stops conservative lawmakers on a religious mission.

Republican governor Bill Haslam hopefully will show moral courage and veto this bill. If he signs it, he’ll be forcing all Tennessee students to be subjected to the religious beliefs of their classmates, and forcing Tennessee into a costly battle in court.

But given that the Tennessee senate passed the bill yesterday on a 32-0 vote, and the House passed it 90-2, any veto Haslam considers likely will be overridden.

[spanone]

24. my state of tennessee has become a shit hole of right wing extremism

from the legislators to the governor

[Vashta Nerada]

25. I'm tired of religious nutcases hiding behind their religion with their hate.

Fucking tired of it.