Greg Cravens
About Jen Clarke’s column, “Legalized Bigotry: Tennessee Outdoes Mississippi and North Carolina” …
I doubt the sponsors of this bill have ever met a transgender person. I doubt most people have ever met a person they would call transgender. They’ve seen Bruce Jenner become Caitlyn Jenner, and since that seems bizarre to most people, along with the preferred pronouns thing, the right-wing homophobes have picked this issue as the means to oppose gay rights, which is linked by the acronym LGBT to the transgender issue.
But keep on saying that nobody with a brain thinks like an average heterosexual American. Keep on calling them bigots. Because that’s so sure to make them feel accomplished after 30 or more years of conditioning to the notion of gay rights and a handful of years of conditioning to the notion of transgender.
Brunetto Latini
I don’t think Jen said they didn’t have a brain. In fact, she is encouraging them to use it and not just be swayed by ill-informed sentiment.
Calling the sponsors of this bill bigots is simply descriptive. One of the great mysteries of the South is why we get so worked up over who is using our public bathrooms. Used to be “colored people” who couldn’t use them. Now there’s another group that Southern folks want to keep out of the stalls. Trying to fix it at the statehouse isn’t going to do anything but create a stink in there, and then the Supremes are going to sing. It’s dumb.
I’ll be the first one to stand up for the rights of my neighbors to do dumb stuff. That’s why we have the phrase, “Here, hold my beer …” But at least it should be for something entertaining.
This? It’s just sad.
OakTree
As a parent, I wonder what will happen to parents who bring their opposite-gendered young children into the bathroom with them. Will Mom be forced to send little 3-year-old Johnny all by himself into the crowded, jostling men’s john at the Tennessee/Alabama game? This bill would forbid him entering the ladies room.
Jeff
Next thing you know, our state legislators will propose a bill that if you are not a Christian, you can’t live in Tennessee. As absurd as that sounds, if things continue to go in this direction, it’s a real possibility.
Pamela Cates
I propose eliminating large public toilet areas altogether and go with multiple outhouses (nary a two seater). And what could say Tennessee better than that?
CL Mullins
About Jackson Baker’s cover story “Can a Wild Card Trump the Opposition?” …
Don’t underestimate Terry Roland. His unfortunate vocal patterns aside, he is very smart guy and a shrewd politician. I am happy to see he is working on his temper, which can get him in trouble from time to time.
Arlington Pop
Oh, the humanity.
B
About Bruce VanWyngarden’s column, “(Another) New Day at the CA” …
As a veteran news reporter and former Commercial Appeal news bureau chief, I strongly support the Gannett Company’s not downsizing editor Louis Graham. The CA, to quote the Flyer‘s editor, indeed, “has improved greatly” under Graham’s editorship.
Though it has been painful to watch the transformation of daily metro newspapers across the U.S., including the CA, Graham has remained true to journalistic integrity, as well as the long-dismissed Truth in Journalism Act.
Despite seemingly never-ending layoffs of reputable staff — and downright crazy bean-counters’ ideas about how to save circulation and advertising dollars — Graham has remained a “Louisville slugger.” (He interned at the Louisville Courier-Journal.) If Gannett lets him go, there will be “no joy in Mudville.”
Fran Taylor