Getting Pounded.

Blue states v. Red States.

I live in paradise. I live in a state that has sponsored a legislative committee and funded it on LGBTQ issues. I live in a state where saying “Gay” is not a crime. I live in a state where books are not banned. I live in a state where just about every public school has a LGBTQ club.

I cannot imagine what it is like to live in a state that hates our guts.

New data on LGBTQ Tennesseans should be a wake up call to lawmakers | Opinion
The hate toward LGBTQ people that is both reflected in and produced by anti-LGBTQ policies is harming Tennesseans every day.
Tennessean
By Emma Chinn Guest Columnist
January 31, 2023


Tennessee has begun a new legislative session and the state’s LGBTQ residents are bracing for impact.The General Assembly’s hostility towards its LGBTQ constituents has resulted in one of the most unsupportive legal systems in the country for LGBTQ people.

As a result of Tennessee state laws, transgender people struggle to access life-saving healthcare, teachers fear the repercussions of discussing LGBTQ identity at school, and same-sex couples worry that adoption agencies may refuse them the chance to raise a child.

The trend of anti-LGBTQ hostility is set to continue in 2023, with a slate of discriminatory bills already moving – including a complete ban on transgender-related healthcare for people under the age of 18 and a bill banning public drag performances written so broadly that it could result in public erasure for all trans people.

They say it is to protect the children but they really don’t care what it is doing to the kids.

Real people are being harmed by these policies

As a member of the LGBTQ community in Tennessee, I often find myself in the position of an advocate, attempting to convince friends and family members that our state’s anti-LGBTQ policies are dangerous and wrong.In these conversations, I am often dismissed. I am told that “it’s just politics”; that while we may disagree, we can still love each other.

The hate toward LGBTQ people that is both reflected in and produced by anti-LGBTQ policies is harming Tennesseans every day.

This legislative session, Tennesseans must unite behind our LGBTQ neighbors and denounce the slate of anti-LGBTQ policies.

But the children are being harmed! Human Rights Watch report;

Fifteen years ago, I helped interviewed some 140 gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in seven US states about their day-to-day life in middle and high school.  We heard grim reports of unchecked verbal abuse escalating into violence and of school administrators’ deliberate indifference when abuses were brought to their attention.

One lesson of that investigation was that laws, even when rarely enforced, can send a powerful message. Many teachers told us, with great shame, that they feared losing their jobs if they protected their students from attacks.

The Republicans are encouraging the swamp people because they vote Republican so they are rallying their baser side of intolerance of people who are different.