Tennessee Hits New Low – General Assembly Introduces “Anti-Transgender Bathroom Amendment”

The Tennessee General Assembly returned to business on Tuesday, and they did not waste any time setting a new low by blatantly attacking Tennessee’s transgender community by introducing SB 2282 by *Watson (*HB 2279 by *Floyd) aka The Tennessee Restroom Amendment that would stop transgender individuals from using their gender specific restrooms and force them to use their birth sex restrooms in public places or be punished by law.

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68,Chapter 15, Part 3, relative to public restrooms and dressing rooms

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

SECTION 1 Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 68 , Chapter 15, Part 3, is amended by adding the following language as a new section: 68-15-304 a) As used in this section:

(1) “Sex” means and refers only to the designation of an individual person as male or female as indicated on the individual’s birth certificate;
(2) “Public building” means a building owned or leased by the state, any agency or instrumentality of the state or any political subdivision of the state;
(3) “Restroom” means a room maintained within or on the premises of any public building and made available to the public, containing toilet facilities for use by employees or the public;
(5) “Dressing room” means a room maintained within or on the premises of any public building, used primarily for changing clothes. (b) Except as provided in § 68-15-303, where a restroom or dressing room in a public building is designated for use by members of one particular sex, only members of that particular sex shall be permitted to use that restroom or dressing room. (c) A violation of subsection (b) is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a to a fine of fifty dollars ($50.00).

SECTION 2. If any provision of this act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end the provisions of this act are declared to be severable.\

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law last May a bill that would prohibit local governments from creating anti-discrimination laws that are stricter than protections laid out by the state government. The law was specifically made to target a recently enacted Nashville ordinance that banned city contractors from discriminating against gay, lesbian and transgender people and specificlly used an  anti-LGBT propaganda commercial to help push the legislation through the House which insinuates that LGBT people will rape and murder their children if anti-LGBT laws are not enacted.

Ohio Legislators Pass Stripped Down Anti-Bullying Law Void Of LGBT, Disability, and Race Protections

Earlier this year we heard about the Michigan State Senate and it’s “license to bully” Anti-Bullying Law where Michigan Senate Republicans inserted a provision that allowed for exceptions to the law for “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” the exemption was eventually stripped from the bill after much controvery and publicity but the eventual reworked bill did not specifically adress bullying based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Well Ohio has gone one step further with Ohio Senate Education Committee passing the  “Jessica Logan Act,” designed to stop harassment of students on and off campus but the the committee would only HB116 at the last minute when it was stripped the provision , “that would prohibit bullying based on any real or perceived characteristics of the student, such as race, disability, sexual orientation and gender identity, and the bill did not include enumeration of particular characteristics.” according to Equality Ohio director Ed Mullen.

So basically this law protects no one and is so vauge that is give authority figures an “out” to ignore bullying of LGBT students, diabled students, or student bullied by race because they either don’t want to stop it or  perceive it as wrong.

This makes me very ashamed to call myself an Ohioain!

LOS ANGELES: City Council Adopts Condom Requirement For Porn

The Los Angeles City Council has approved a measure requiring the use of condoms in all porn productions. Via press release from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation:

In an historic move, during today’s City Council meeting, the Los Angeles City Council adopted the proposed ordinance, ‘City of Los Angeles Safer Sex In The Adult Film Industry Act,’ a ballot initiative that has recently qualified to be placed on the June 5, 2012 election despite legal action by Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich to block the measure from appearing before City voters on the ballot. The ballot measure would condition the issuance of City film permits to adult film producers to condom use in the subsequent adult films shot and produced in Los Angeles.

Today's news probably makes the ballot measure moot. The LA City Attorney had filed a suit against the referendum, arguing that the state is the supreme authority in workplace safety.

:: FBI Changes Its Definition, Includes Male Rape

"The FBI recently changed its long-standing policy that recognized rape as a crime affecting only women, a change that will bring more accurate counts of male rape and provide better resources to victims.

In its crime reports and tallies, the FBI will now include men among rape victims. Their new provision describes rape as any kind of forced penetration. Along with advocates for victims of sexual crimes, Vice President Joseph Biden pushed for the change. He said the new policy will reverse 80 years of not accounting for male rape victims."

Michigan Passes “License to Bully” Law. Exempts Religous and Moral Bullying From Being Punished

The Michigan GOP controlled Senate has passed a piece of “supposed”anti-bullying Legislation that exempts statements based on moral convictions of any school related person from being charged as bullying.
The amended bill, SB 137, which does nothing advocates have pushed for — including reporting requirements and enumeration, or listing, of protected classes. “This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil and parent or guardian.”
In other words the law is a joke and it actually provides protection for children and adults to abuse and harass gay kids
Senate Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing ) slammed the Republicans over the amended language.

“Here today you claim to be protecting kids and you’re actually putting them in more danger,” Whitmer said. “But bullying is not OK. We should be protecting public policy that protects kids — all kids, from bullies — all bullies. But instead you have set us back further by creating a blueprint for bullying.  You may be able to pat yourselves on the back today and say that you did something, but in actuality you are explicitly outlining how to get away with bullying,” she said. “Your exceptions have swallowed the rule. As passed today, bullying kids is OK if a student, parent, teacher or school employee can come up with a moral or religious reason for doing it.”

Kevin Epling, an East Lansing parent whose son committed suicide as a result of bullying stated:  “I am ashamed that this could be Michigan’s bill on anti-bullying, when in fact it is a ‘bullying is OK in MI’ law,”