Governor Haslam, please continue to oppose HB2414 and listen to the voices of transgender students and the business community speaking out against the bill.  Thank you for considering our views.

Dear Governor Haslam,

We urge you to veto HB1840, which allows counselors to turn away clients based on the counselor's biases and values.  This bill puts the focus on the desires of counselors rather than on the needs of clients, damaging the counseling profession and putting clients at risk. 

An anti-bullying amendment was stripped from the bill in the House Health Committee leaving youth vulnerable in areas where mental health services are not widely available.

Thank you for considering our views.

Dear Governor Haslam,

We call on you to do everything in your power to lobby against passage of SB2387/HB2414, the anti-transgender student bathroom bill.  We also ask that you VETO the bill if it reaches your desk. 

The bill endangers vulnerable students and it risks significant U.S. Department of Education funds to Tennessee.  If this bill became law, the enforcement would be a nightmare for school districts across the state. 

Show the world that Tennessee is a welcoming state.  Thank you for considering our views.

Add your voice to tell Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th (which has a store in Nashville), and their online stores that transgender employees deserve protection from discrimination on the job and that the company should rescind its position that gender identity is not covered by sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. 

You can read about the case of transgender employee Leyth Jamal and the repugnant Saks response here.

Cassie Hopkins, a young bisexual woman, had volunteered at Yoke Youth Ministries in Jefferson County.  The program is interdenominational and draws on the work of young adults to mentor middle-school students.  She had gone through the screening process and there were no complaints about her work as a volunteer.  After disclosing her sexual orientation on Facebook, her supervisor told her that she would no longer be allowed to volunteer, even though there is nothing in Yoke's written policies about sexual orientation.  Her supervisor compared bisexuality to alcoholism and drug addiction.

Let's show support for Cassie and remind our fellow Tennesseans and especially Yoke that people can serve and contribute to enriching the lives of youth in our state regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.  This is a message Yoke and many others need to hear.  Please, add your voice. 

We are glad to partner with the LGBT Alumni of Carson-Newman on this project.  They first brought the case to our attention.

Note:  We are not arguing about whether anyone has the legal ability to discriminate in Tennessee.  What we are contesting is whether it is right to exclude talented people from helping youth simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. 

This week the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is holding a conference in Nashville on marriage, sexuality, and gender.  Add your voice to urge them to consider the impact of their teachings on violence against LGBT people and LGBT youth homelessness.  According to national estimates, up to 40% of the youth homeless population is LGBT.  Many of those youth were turned out of their homes because of certain kinds of religious bias.  We believe that rather than holding conferences on how to preserve marriage discrimination, the Southern Baptist Convention's leadership should begin to address the ways in which their teachings contribute to harms to LGBT people. 

TEP joined OutCentral and Vanderbilt Divinity School in organizing a protest of the event outside the Opryland Hotel.  TTPC and PFLAG also participated.  Your voice can help highlight needed changes in the Southern Baptist Convention's approach.