I've seen a lot of truly horrible stuff come through the legislative pipeline in the past several years here in Tennessee (the buckle of the bible belt), but this might be the worst. Citing religious freedoms, a proposed bill would permit hate speech and bullying in schools, if that is what your religious beliefs guide you to do.
Really? This is where we're heading? Protecting the religious rights of the religious right to the extent that they can gaybash and sentence classmates to purgatory without schools being able to interfere? Here I thought all the recent attempts to privatize public education was to make a profit...but here I guess they just want to make sure everybody knows that hate crime in the name of God is an inalienable right. It's been fairly effective against local Muslims so far, I guess it's only natural they widen their gaze towards the next Big Evil on the horizon- those gays hiding among us, poisoning our children with their lifestyle.
Please help make sure this never so much as comes to a vote. Contact people. Make noise. Sign the petition.