Tennessee already has a North Carolina-style law that prohibits LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections statewide, but some TN lawmakers are now angling to pass an anti-trans bill dictating which bathrooms transgender students can use. Current state law leaves transgender policies up to individual school districts, but the state bill slated for committee consideration this week seeks to change that policy, which would put the Tennessee tourism and entertainment industries in the same tailspin North Carolina is now experiencing. Nate Rau reports:
The bill damages the image of Tennessee as a welcoming place, contended Nashville Convention and Visitors Corp. President and CEO Butch Spyridon. He said two groups have said Nashville won’t be considered as an option for future conventions if the law passes. A CVC spokeswoman said those unspecified conventions would bring more than 10,800 combined hotel room nights. [...]
Peter Kurland, the business agent for the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 492 in Nashville, said the legislation could have a chilling effect in a sector that has been bringing more productions and creating jobs in Tennessee.
“Nashville” is wrapping up its fourth season filming here. When that show is in production, the union has said it employs about 500 full-time workers. Kurland said the new CMT comedy “Still the King,” which filmed in Nashville, created a similar number of jobs. And the state has recently allocated incentives for the Memphis-based production of the drama “Million Dollar Quartet.”
Nashville is produced by Lionsgate, which recently scrapped productions in North Carolina over its new anti-LGBT law that both prohibits nondiscrimination protections and dictates which bathrooms trans people can use in government facilities and schools (it's a twofer!).
The measure—HB2414 and SB2387—will be reviewed in the coming days and is not so coincidentally being pushed by the same organization that championed South Dakota's effort to target transgender students: Alliance Defending Freedom. Fortunately, Tennessee's governor appears to be taking note of the same concerns GOP SD Gov. Dennis Daugaard did before vetoing the bill.
A fiscal note of $1 billion has been attached to the bill because of concerns that federal Title IX funding could be in jeopardy if the bill becomes law. Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has expressed concerns about the legislation citing the Title IX funding.
In fact, North Carolina’s Title IX funding is currently at risk for being pulled by the Department of Education, which is among a handful of federal agencies reviewing the law’s impact on federal funding.
Gov. Haslam’s history on anti-LGBTQ isn’t great, however—he signed the state’s ban on LGBT civil rights protections back in 2011. Of course, that was before the movement’s consecutive wins on same-sex marriage rights at the Supreme Court in 2013 and 2015.