Governor Haslam,

I ask that you use your power as Governor and leader of the Republican Party here in Tennessee to discourage passage of this legislation, or if passed, to immediately VETO the legislation with a strong statement that the legislature’s attempts to discriminate against members of our community are unwelcome and will have political consequences. The discriminatory motivation behind the Bill is disgusting. Moreover, its a solution without a problem. I doubt the legislature will have any testimony of this being an issue, but will hear plenty of testimony that passage of this Bill will cause more problems than it solves. If the Bill passes, it will likely cause so much more chaos on in bathrooms. Now, people use the bathroom with the gender they most identify with. I’ve never ever seen anyone out of place in any restroom in this State. But if the Bill passes and people are forced to use the bathroom of the sex that is identified by their birth certificate, you will have people who look like men in women’s bathrooms and people who look like women in men’s bathrooms. The commonality of this happening that this legislation will create will actually do harm to the pretext that the legislature is using to discriminate, i.e., that there could be males lurking in women’s restrooms — again, not an actual problem. But we all know, that’s not the real issue. The real issue is that certain of our conservative legislatures are doing whatever they can to promote hate. There is no place for that in Tennessee, and if there is and you sign this legislation into law, I will affirmatively support any company or person that pulls business out of this State because they don’t want to identify with, or live in, a State that actively supports hate towards any group of people.


Finally, I thought Republicans fundamentally were for less government. Now, our Republican Party wants to regulate what goes on in bathroom stalls and who has what underneath their clothes? How about we work towards actually solving real problems that face this state: high infant mortality rates, a population that is among the 5 least healthy populations in the country; and a crumbling infrastructure! I am, frankly, embarrassed.

Dear Governor Haslam,

Please veto this and similar hate-based legislation being propounded by our “Republican” legislature. I thought being a Republican meant having less government and trusting Americans to do the right thing. Instead, our legislature (and those of our sister-states) seem ridiculously pre-occupied with regulating things that need absolutely no regulation. How on earth did we come so far without having regulations about which bathroom to use or allowing people in a state of emotional crisis to obtain the help they need to save their lives? Now, instead of solving the actual problems that plague Tennessee and our residents, such as failing schools, the highest birth mortality rates in the country, and an infrastructure that is collapsing around us, our law-makers are far more interested by what’s in our pants. With regard to this bill in particular, our residents, particularly our school-age children, need more assistance in preventing suicide, not less! My half-brother killed himself and we have no less than dozen close friends whose loved-ones committed suicide. I can tell you that the last thing someone in crisis like that needs is a care-provider discriminating against them because of their life circumstances — life circumstances that are likely, at least in part, contributing in some way to the crisis they are in. Rather than giving those care-providers a pass for discriminating, a care-provider who discriminates like this should have their privileges revoked, as they are gravely endangering someone’s life.