Friday, May 13, 2011
Event "Special Access to Discriminate" Bill Passes Senate
Posted by Bianca Phillips on Fri, May 13, 2011 at 2:19 PM
Yesterday, the Tennessee Senate approved SB632, known by equality advocates as the "Special Access to Discriminate" Bill. This means that employees who work for local government contractors in the state will have no legal protections from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
An amendment to the bill must be passed by the House, but then the bill will go to Governor Bill Haslam's desk. He has the option to veto, and the Tennessee Equality Project is urging people to contact Haslam with their concerns.
If signed into law, the bill would repeal LGBT-inclusive workplace protections passed by Nashville's Metro government in April.
Comments (26)
Showing 1-26 of 26
I live in the zip code 38108 in Memphis, TN. We have the highest infant mortality rate in the country. That means babies are dying! And our republican't legislators are busy with discrimination. I am so pissed off! This is a perfect example of republican't priorities. Hurting gays is way more important to them than saving lives of babies!
like
dislikeContact Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and relevant Executive Branch Departments today. Tell them that Tennessee cannot allow intolerance and bigotry to damage the state's tourism industry and economy.
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-tn-go…
Hey BM (wow, your screen name is just so full of irony) instead of making potshot, meaningless comments, why not come back over to the other thread and try to defend your defenseless position some more.
Keep your perverted bedrooms out of workplace situations.
Definitely cause for celebration.
Well clearly the militant homosexuals can't tolerate an abusing viewpoint. I thought you folks were all about tolerance? hah
The good folks of this state are on bended knee talking to the man from Galilee.
What are you on bended knee doing, mad_merc?
I can do whatever I damn well please on bended knee and that's the point that you simply can't seem to grasp.
As for the "The good folks of this state are on bended knee talking to the man from Galilee" that is every single invidiual's right to do so. What it is not is their right to force it upon others. Again, a point that seems to elude you. Not to mention that earlier you proclaimed your athiesm, so why should care if peole are praying or not?
It is not the government's jog to legislate morality, unless you like living in theocracy much like your dear friends in the Taliban. You guys really have more in common than you both realize.
And just to clarify things for you Tsutton, banned_moron, and/or taft_sutton, or which ever alias you chose to use next, it's not opposing viewpoints that I don't like. It's uninformed, unintelligent, bigoted drivel that I do not like. I have presented facts that debunk every point you've tried to raise. You are left with your opinion, which is fine, but once again you can not legislate your opinion on to others. Bring some facts to the table and we discuss them, otherwise your remarks are nothing more than childish prattle.
I also like the militant homosexual label. Especially since I'm not gay, but trust me I'd rather be labeled gay than considered an associate of yours any day.
Well you've learned to cut and paste. Nice job of parrotting the mis-information. Goebels would be proud.
Taft, I'm having a Welcome Home Party for Jesus at my house on the 21st, in keeping with the (ir)Reverend Camping's prophecy. My gay friends will be there and the first thing we'll ask him--after a round of hugs--is whether he's planning on judging them. You're invited too, if you want to be there to hear the definitive answer. When you do something, non-anonymously, to demonstrate the good of your works, I'll listen to your screeds on morality. Remember: if the spirit's sleeping, the flesh is ink.
Where does one draw the line on lifestyles? If our identity is determined by our genes, then murderers and thieves are merely acting by the genetic disposition and fit the same category. If there are no absolutes in morality, then why not allow practicioners of bestiality to work anywhere? Contradictions abound in the liberal camps.
Taft, please don't post copyrighted works on the Memphis Flyer website without the original author's permission. Reported your copypasta as spam.
As much as I'd enjoy ripping your little cut and paste job to shreds, it would take far more space than just about anyone would care to read. Therefore I'll give you the Reader's Digest condensed version. Your "facts" are mostly halftruths in that you have (well not you personally, but who ever was bored enough to sit down a peruse several old medical journals) cherrypicked sentences from various studies mostly compiled from the early 80s to mid 90s. If you read all of the information you will clearly see that there is a problem with STD's in our country period. That's what most of this amounts to.
You should also consider the fact that lesbians are at less risk for contracting syphilis, gonorrhea, HPV, HSV, and chlamydia than women who have intercourse with men. Several studies indicate that lack of heterosexual intercourse or delayed initiation of heterosexual coitus decreases the risk of cervical cancer as well.
It would appear that the almighty penis, be it hetero or homosexual is the real culprit here. Maybe if we had better, more open and frank discussions about sex and sex education with our children we could help to change the numbers which are alarming.
The CDC estimates over 19 million new cases of STDs were incurred in the US in 2009. That puts us ahead of quite a few third world countries and the absolute highest rate of infection of any industrialized nation. Out of that 19 million 7000 (yes that's thousand) are new HIV cases. Not quite the pandemic you inferred, especially considering that Chlamydia accounted for roughly 4.4 million of the total cases. As far as syphilis goes, yes it has a symbiotic relationship with HIV, but the numbers are relatively low with only 12 million cases reported world wide.
One last point then I'll stop. The CDC reports that 53% of new HIV cases are in men that have sex with other men and that this same sub-group accounts for 48% of the total number of people living with HIV in the US. That's a lot less than 80%, so you lied. Also worldwide women account for 53% of all new HIV cases. And notice that the CDC and even WHO do not report numbers with the titles gay and straight. They use the term "men that have sex with men" or MSM. That is because even though gay men are thought to comprise roughly 4% of the US population, almost 7% of men in several surveys have admitted to male-male sex in the previous year when questioned. These numbers are consistent across several surveys. Apparently there's a lot more militant homo activity going on than you suspected.
If anything your cut and paste job does nothing but highlight the need for more and better sex education and health services like Planned Parenthood, the funding to which people like yuou want to cut.
Come back again when you have something better than half truths and lies.
Charles you've been spanked on this subject so often that I'm beginning to think that you're a masochist.
Don't do that Auto. There is no better disinfectant than the light of day. Let our little hypocritical friend post this rubbish so that it can be debunked. Besides it's posted on at least a dozen different wing nut web sites.
Merc makes a great point that has been made before, to wit; it isn't homosexuality that is the problem with STDs. It's the Penis. Lesbianism is the solution.
Mad_Merc, I invited Jello, too--haven't heard back from him yet, so I'm still hoping ;-)
How much homosexuality is genetic has been debated, but the fact that gay people do not choose to be gay (any more than left-handed people choose to be left-handed) has always been beyond question by those who actually study gay people. Spouting the lie saying that being gay is a choice doesn't make it true.
And harveydanger's talking about "perverted bedrooms" doesn't help either, since being gay is not primarily about the sexual act (no more than heterosexuality is); it is about a person's natural emotional (and physical) attraction to others. This part of the country especially is rife with gay people who have married heterosexually and raised entire families, only to realize later that they have long kept hidden from themselves, their spouses and their families their true orientation.
And as far as Taft_Sutton's suggestion that gay people find their solution in Christianity: Many have, and happily. Christianity and being gay are not mutually exclusive. There are millions of gay people worldwide who profess Jesus Christ as Savior, and the oppressive and unchristian attitudes of their fellow believers cannot squelch their faith or their belief that they ARE living perfectly moral lives in accordance with the way God created them and with Scripture. If you're smart you could draw some inspiration from their strength.
They're here, they're queer, many of them are already religious, thank you, and they aren't going away.
Sorry mad_merc, I had to report it, because if the Flyer lets people violate Fair Use on their website, that exposes them to liability. I agree with you wholeheartedly about sunshine being the best disinfectant, so for anyone who wants to read it, here is a link to the copyrighted material that Taft posted which has since been removed: http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/cox/04…
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