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Tennessee bill would ban books that mention LGBTQ people from public schools

Tennessee bill would ban books that mention LGBTQ people from public schools
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Tennessee lawmakers are continuing their push to be the most anti-LGBTQ legislative body in the nation.

Republican state Rep. Bruce Giffey (R) has now introduced a bill that would ban public schools from using books that mention LGBTQ people.

Related: Taylor Swift made a major donation to an LGBTQ group to fight Tennessee’s ‘slate of hate’ laws

H.B. 800 would ensure “public charter schools shall not locally adopt or use in the public schools of this state, textbooks and instructional materials or supplemental instructional materials that promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender issues or lifestyle,” according to the text of the proposed law.

The bill says that mentioning LGBTQ people “offends a significant portion of students, parents, and Tennessee residents with Christian values.”

It will be considered by the Education Instruction Subcommittee on March 30. If signed into law, it would go into effect during the next school year.

Just this year, the state has passed bills that would allow adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBTQ parents, ban transgender youth from playing school sports, and another bill under consideration would make the Bible the state’s official book.

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