Tennessee’s top attorney believes in the sanctity of school sports and work bathrooms more than “every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love.”
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery led a 20-state coalition in a lawsuit this past week that hopes to stop an anti-discrimination order from President Joe Biden. The order was issued in January and prevents discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” reads the order. “Adults should be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted, or mistreated because of whom they go home to or because how they dress does not conform to sex-based stereotypes.”
But Slatery says no.
“The guidance purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as whether schools must allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams, whether employers and schools may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms, and whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns,” Slatery said in a statement.
However, Slatery claims Biden’s order “threatens women’s sports and student and employee privacy.” To get there legally, Slatery and his coalition (including Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and more) claim only Congress — not the president — can change “these sensitive issues” of “enormous importance.” The coalition’s complaint asserts that the claim that the order simply implements the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock decision on anti-discrimination is faulty.
“The agencies simply do not have that authority,” Slatery said in a statement. “But that has not stopped them from trying. … All of this, together with the threat of withholding educational funding in the midst of a pandemic, warrants this lawsuit.”
Government watchdog group, Accountable.US, said last week that anti-LGBTQ rules hurt people, especially kids, and they hurt business.
“Unfortunately, it seems that legalizing discrimination is so important to Attorney General Slatery that for him, it outweighs the risks to his constituents and Tennessee’s economy,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. “Students deserve to learn in a safe environment where their identities are respected, not used as props in a conservative culture war. If businesses are serious about opposing discriminatory legislation and valuing the rights of LGBTQ Tennesseans, now is the time for them to speak out.”
Earlier this year, leaders with 184 Tennessee businesses — including Amazon, Live Nation, and Lyft — issued a letter urging against anti-LGBTQ legislation in Tennessee.
