Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Money Talks: Tennessee kills its bigoted anti-trans law...for now

US state of Tennessee republican Susan Lynn has withdrawn her hateful anti-trans bathroom law, but not out of any sense of decency.  (She obviously doesn't have any, since she was the one who presented it.)  She withdrew it because her personal bigotry will cost Tennessee US$1.2 billion in school funding, something she would not be able to explain to taxpayers.
Tennessee Lawmaker Kills Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill, Leaving North Carolina All Alone

On Monday, Tennessee Republican Rep. Susan Lynn announced that she will pull her anti-trans bathroom bill, at least until next year.

[...]

In a defensive [read: indefensible] press conference, Lynn insisted that she was not responding to the widespread outrage her bill had provoked among major corporations and businesses, as well as from trans students and LGBTQ advocates. Instead, she seemed concerned by the attorney general’s (correct) assertion that the measure would cost the state $1.2 billion in federal education funding, since federal law prohibits public schools from engaging in gender identity discrimination. 
The last part of this story is interesting. 
Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican, had also implied that he might veto the bill, noting that he wasn’t “hearing about problems” relating to trans bathroom use.
Is Haslam admitting to reality?  Police across the US have recorded ZERO instances of "transgender predators in bathrooms", though they have recorded countless instances of transgender people being harassed by cisgenders.  If there were even a single instance of transgender people harassing others, the rightwing media would have pounced on it and repeated it incessantly.

Or did Haslam realize what happened in Uganda would happen to his state?  For those who don't remember or don't know, Uganda attempted to put forward a "kill the gays" law which legalized murder.  It was only withdrawn when foreign donors threatened to withhold millions of dollars in foreign aid to the country.

Maybe Susan Lynn should be appointed ambassador to Uganda and sent their permanently.  I'm sure she would be very happy to live in such a christian-dominated nation.

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