A foster care and adoption license to discriminate measure was recently put into a health and human services funding bill in the House Appropriations Committee.

The “Aderholt Amendment” allows foster care and adoption service providers across the country to discriminate against children and prospective parents based on sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and marital status.

We need your help to tell Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker:  NO ADOPTION DISCRIMINATION in the 2019 Appropriations bill!  We will deliver hard copies to their offices.

The map shown above represents mental health providers in Tennessee who provide affirmative services, especially in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Please click on the top right of the map to make it larger so you can search your address/location to find counselors close to you and more information about them (e.g., website, e-mail address, insurance options, etc.).

The "Counseling Discrimination Law" (formerly HB1840) passed in 2016 highlights the need for counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and other mental health providers to speak out for inclusive and affirmative practices.  We urge any mental health provider to endorse the statement at the bottom of the page. 

As counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers serving clients in Tennessee, we affirm that we do not discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity and we will not use our own sincerely held principles as a reason to turn clients away. 

Note:  The Tennessee Equality Project and the Tennessee Equality Project Foundation reserve the right to refuse membership to any provider or revoke a provider's listing.

If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please reach out to [email protected].

Take a minute to contact Governor Bill Haslam by phone message or on Twitter and then let us know you did it using this form.  Let's get to 500 or more!

I called or Tweeted Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and urged him to veto HB1840, the counseling discrimination bill.  I'm asking you to do the same this week.

The Legislature passed SB1912/HB2248 that removes funding from the Office for Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.  Sign this petition that we will deliver to Governor Haslam asking him to veto the bill.

On April 18, 2016 about 30 pastors shamefully stood in Legislative Plaza and spoke in favor of the anti-transgender student bathroom bill.  And religion was used to advance the counseling discrimination bill.  Many more clergy across Tennessee publicly opposed both bills.

Whether you're religious or not, aren't you tired of religion being used to support discrimination in our laws?  If so, endorse this statement:

We oppose the use of religion to justify discrimination in Tennessee law.  To use religion to divide us in our public life violates the spirit of the U.S. and Tennessee Constitutions, does harm to the people of Tennessee, and brings scandal to religion.

Sign this NEW petition urging Governor Bill Haslam to keep listening to the voices opposed to the anti-transgender student bathroom bill!

Sign on as a co-sponsor of the People's Resolution Opposing Tennessee House Joint Resolution 529 on Marriage Equality.

WHEREAS, Rep.  Susan Lynn has introduced a resolution urging the members of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee to express their disagreement with the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges; and

WHEREAS, the Tennessee Constitution affirms "That the citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble together, for their common good, to instruct their representatives, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government for redress of grievances or other proper purposes, by address or remonstrance;" and

WHEREAS, the State of Tennessee ought to be focused on the legal equality of all its people rather than attacking the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community; and

WHEREAS, "the equal protection of the laws" is a cherished principle in American jurisprudence; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, that we oppose House Joint Resolution 529 and urge the members of the 109th General Assembly of the State of Tennessee to uphold the entire Constitution of the United States, including the Fourteenth Amendment, and cease their legislative attacks on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.