Like Pastor Martin Niemöller Poem Goes...

To paraphrase Neimoller,

First they came for us,
Then they came for the Drag Queens
And now they are coming for the Gays & Lesbians

 

Once again the Republicans are passing legislation that they know is illegal.

Tennessee Republicans pass bill allowing marriage discrimination toward same-sex couples
Despite marriage equality being the law of the land with significant support, the GOP continues to try to legislate LGBTQ+ people out of society.
The Advocate
By Christopher Wiggins
February 15 2024

The push to allow people to discriminate is strong in Tennessee, where the state senate approved a bill on Monday that could potentially allow individuals to refuse to officiate marriages based on their personal beliefs, including objections to LGBTQ+ weddings. The legislation, Senate Bill 596, declares that “a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage if the person has an objection to solemnizing the marriage based on the person’s conscience or religious beliefs.”

The bill, championed by Republican state Rep. Monty Fritts, claims to “protect the rights of the officiate or officiates of wedding ceremonies,” though Tennessee law already permits individuals to decline to officiate at marriages if they choose.

Critics argue this legislation could lead to broader discrimination, particularly affecting LGBTQ+ and interracial couples. Eric Patton, a Tennessee minister, previously voiced concerns to Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN, highlighting the bill’s potential for enabling discrimination “against anybody for any reason,” which he deemed “Tennessee nonsense” that is” just wrong-headed.”

What do the Republicans want to get out of passing all these bills? They know that they will lose in court. They know that this is settled law, the Supreme Court has spoken! Right next door to Tennessee, in Kentucky…

Former Kentucky clerk in gay marriage case must pay additional $260K
The Hill
By Lauren Sforza
January 2, 2024

The former Kentucky clerk who refused to grant a gay couple a marriage license must pay an additional $260,104 to the couple, a federal judge ruled last week.

David Ermold and David Moore sued former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in 2015 after she declined to issue the couple a marriage license because doing so would violate “God’s definition of marriage” and her religious beliefs as a Christian.

[…]

“Plaintiffs not only prevailed, but obtained the result sought. They sought to vindicate their fundamental right to marry and obtain marriage licenses; and they did so,” Bunning said in the order.

But Tennessee legislature has its blinders on and ignored the laws and passed the bill that will surely be thrown out of court.

So why are the Republicans passing these laws, what are their goals? Why are they persecuting us like this? Well the simple one word answer is “Power” they want to create a one party Christian nation. They want to criminalize us again like back in the fifties in their little own dream world of “Father Knows Best”

What are the Republican goals in passing all these anti-LGBTQ+ legislations? It is to bring back the days before the Cooper Do-nuts uprising in ‘59, Dewey’s Lunch Counter protest in ‘65, in ‘66  the Silver Lake’s Black Cat Tavern and Compton Cafeteria uprisings, and the Stonewall uprising in ‘69 where we could be arrested. They want to be able to fire gays and lesbians, they want to lock us up and male criminals out of us. They want to create the Lavender Scare on steroids.