Lawmakers in Nashville are kicking their law-making machines into high gear with committee schedules filled to the brim with everything from far-right fueled covenant marriages to hunters finding wounded deer with drones.
Here’s a few bills we’re watching:
Gender transition (SB 0676): Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) says this law ensures that if a gender clinic takes state funds to perform gender transition procedures, they’ll have to also perform “detransition procedures.”
The bill also requires a report to the state on a ton of of information about any transition procedures: the age and sex of the patient, what drugs were given, when the referral was made, what state and county the patient is from, and a complete list of ”neurological, behavioral, or mental health conditions” the patient might have had. Almost everything but the patient’s name and WhatsApp handle.
Forever chemicals (SB0880): The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing this bill, and maybe not just in Tennessee.
When a rep for the organization (Mark Behrens, a representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform), explained it to a Senate committee last week, he specifically mentioned PFAS (also called forever chemicals by some), which are found in non-stick cookware, firefighting foam, and more. He also broadly mentioned “microplastics” and “solvents.”
Behrens claimed these may have a PR problem but they may also be in a situation where “the science (on them) is evolving and they may not have an impact on human health, or that impact may be unclear.”
So, rather than the state banning them for just having a bad rap, any ban would have to be based on “the best available science.” For a deep dive on this, read Tennessee Lookout’s story below.
Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) asked if this could be used to keep fluoride out of drinking water. No, she was told.
“Medical Ethics Defense Act“ (SB0995): ”This bill prohibits a healthcare provider from being required to participate in or pay for a healthcare procedure, treatment, or service that violates the conscience of the healthcare provider.” The bill itself is scanty on details. On its face, it sure sounds aimed at the LGBTQ community.
But bill sponsor Sen. Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin) said it was a “straightforward bill,” covering things such as assisted suicide or whether or not a pharmacist felt comfortable prescribing birth control.
Deer and drones (SB0130): This one is straightforward. It would allow hunters to use drones to find deer they shot.
WHO now? (SB0669): With this bill, Taylor, the Memphis Republican, says pandemics can only be declared by the American baseball-and-apple-pie Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), not the soccer-and-scone World Health Organization (WHO).
Cash for STI tests (SB0189): Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) wants to give higher-education students in Tennessee $250 for taking a voluntary test for sexually transmitted diseases.
Felonies for protestors (0672): You know how Memphis protestors like to shut down the Hernando DeSoto Bridge? Well, Taylor, that Memphis Republican, would make that a felony.
But it’s not just big roads and protestors. The bill applies to anyone obstructing “a highway, street, sidewalk, railway, waterway, elevator, aisle, hallway, or other place used for the passage of persons or vehicles.” Those would be Class E felonies.
But if the “offense was committed by intentionally obstructing a highway, street, or other place used for the passage of vehicles,” it would be a Class D felony.
What’s in a name? (SB0214): This bill would prohibit any public facility to be named for a local public official who is currently in office — and for two years after they leave office. The same prohition would also apply to anyone who has “been convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude.”
Covenant marriage (SB 0737): This bill creates “covenant marriage” in Tennessee. And the most important thing the bill caption wants you to know about the law is that this kind of marriage “is entered into by one male and one female.”
Covenant marriage is, like, a mega, pinky-swear marriage. To get it, couples have to go to pre-marital counseling and their preacher or counselor or whatever has to get notarized some kind of pamphlet to be printed by the Secretary of State.
Getting out of a covenant marriage is, like, way hard. A partner would have to cheat, or die, be sentenced to death or lifelong imprisonment, leave the house for a year, or physically or sexually abuse the other partner or the couple’s children.
These types of marriages are only available now in Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
Here’s a couple of opinion pieces from The Tennessean if you want to find out more about the two sides of this issue.
Oh, and if you wonder where this is coming from, check out this video that shows Sen. Mark Pody (R-Lebanon), one of the bill’s sponsors, at church talking about “wicked” gay marriage.
