Welcome to the 659th original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing John Ragan, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives first elected in… yet again, it’s the 2010 Tea Party Wave. While in 2012, he barely survived re-election with 51% of the vote, in 2016, he won re-election to a fourth term with 66% of the vote. Now, CSGOPOTD has had John Ragan on its radar for quite some time, after he made himself a bit of a laughing stock back in 2013 for sponsoring his “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Tennessee, HB 1332. While it would have been enough of an eyebrow-raising piece of legislation for its desire to forbid public school teachers from saying “gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual” in classrooms as a piece of legislation from ALEC, but that Ragan amended the bill a few times in Tennessee to change its language requiring teachers to report gay students to their parents for mental health counseling (which is messed up enough because homosexuality stopped being classified as a mental disorder four decades earlier in 1973). After being hit with widespread criticism that he was anti-gay, Ragan released a statement that his legislation was “pro-mental health”, only drawing the ire of the LGBTQ community even more. It of course, died in committee every time he tried to get it passed. In 2014, Ragan began speaking out against gay couples that he felt were leaving Tennessee to get married out of state to come back home and enjoy cheaper insurance premiums as married couples. Apparently, that’s the only reason same sex couples wanted to be married, in his bigoted eyes.
As of 2017, Ragan hasn’t mellowed out much, sponsoring legislation in at the start of the new session to try and limit the terms “mother and father” to exist only in households with opposite sex parents in an end-around to try and argue against gay adoption. He also has sponsored a bill that would require those on work visa to have their driver’s licenses label them as “alien” so law enforcement could more easily identify them as immigrants or undocumented immigrants. While several balked at the term “alien” being used, they also pointed out that expiration dates on Tennessee driver’s licenses already expire to coincide with the expiration of their work visas. John Ragan wasn’t going to let that fact change his opinion, instead invoking 9/11 as the justification for his anti-immigrant legislation. When he failed to whip up support by invoking the tragedy, he finally pulled the bill.
Ragan’s overall voting record is a hot bed of nuttery:
- April 14th, 2011: Ragan votes for SB 16, a stricter Voter ID law aimed at suppressing the vote using the pretense of in-person voter fraud that is statistically non-existent.
- January 12th, 2012: Ragan co-sponsors HJR 587, a resolution against the United Nations Agenda 21 treaty, for fears from hard-right conspiracy theorists that it’s a plot to establish global domination.
- March 29th, 2012: John Ragan votes for HB 3808, a bill written to gather “abortion statistics” that made many critics realize the data could help identify women going to clinics to seek abortions.
- February 6th, 2013: Ragan co-sponsors HB 937, to block the Medicaid Expansion in Tennessee.
- February 25th, 2013: Ragan votes for HB 553, to prevent Civil War monuments from being renamed.
- January 21st, 2016: John Ragan co-sponsors HB 2129, again to preserve Civil War monuments.
- March 3rd, 2016: Ragan votes for HJR 529, to express disagreement with the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling by the Supreme Court.
- February 12th, 2018: John Ragan votes for HB 108, a mandatory ultrasound bill for women seeking abortions.
John Ragan is up for re-election again in 2018, and while Tennessee remains one of the deepest red states in the union, it still is possible that all his past shenanigans against the LGBTQ community blow up in his face.
One Year Ago, March 15th, 2017: Bill Kintner (NE)… 2017 Update
Two Years Ago. March 15th, 2016: Rick Brinkley (OK) … Original Profile
Three Years Ago: March 15th, 2015: Jase Bolger (MI)
