Tennessee bills would ban anything gay in schools, gay adoption

Members of Tennessee's LGBT community spent most of Feb. 19 lobbying lawmakers successfully helping derail one bill and voicing strong concerns about another that would severely restrict gay rights in the state. The derailed bill would have barred elementary and secondary schools from "any instruction or materials discussing sexual orientation other than heterosexuality." The other would ban unmarried couples from adopting or becoming foster parents. The school bill was filed by state Stacey Campfield (R) and was heard on Feb. 19 in a House subcommittee. Teachers should neither be promoting nor speaking against homosexuality, Campfield told the Tennessean newspaper. "They should not talk about it all," Campfield said. "Leave it up to families to talk about it." Chris Sanders, president of the Tennessee Equality Project, called the bill unrealistic. In addition to opposition from the Equality Project it was criticized by spokespersons for the Tennessee Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the state Department who all spoke against it in committee. The committee agreed to send it to the state Department of Education for further study, a move that effectively killed the measure for this session of the legislature. The adoption ban, meanwhile, is advancing in the legislature. While the measure does not bar single people, gay or straight, from adopting or fostering, couples would have to be legally married. Last October Attorney General Bob Cooper released a legal opinion that said there is nothing in the Tennessee constitution or in state law to prevent same-sex couples from becoming adoptive parents. Cooper had been asked for the legal assessment by Wilson County Circuit Judge Clara Byrd. Although Byrd has not said why she asked for the opinion it has been generally assumed she is presiding over an adoption application by either a gay person or a same-sex couple. Adoption cases are sealed to protect the rights of children. Cooper in his legal opinion said that under current state law anyone 18 years of age or older may adopt, assuming the adoption is found to be in the best interest of the child. "There is no prohibition in Tennessee statutes against adoption by a same sex couple," he said. He also noted that before a judge grants an adoption there must be a finding that the adoptive parents "are fit persons to have the care and custody of the child." Socially conservative groups that won a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage say that if the legislature does not pass an adoption bill they will begin collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment barring gays from adopting in the Tennessee.