Last session it was the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Now the battle lines are being drawn up over another bill that deals with discussion about homosexuality in schools.
The Family Action Council of Tennessee said in a newsletter emailed to supporters Tuesday that one of its top priorities for 2012 will be passage of legislation that changes the state’s anti-bullying law “to make sure it protects the religious liberty and free speech rights of students who want to express their views on homosexuality.”
The Tennessee Equality Project, a gay rights organization, has already sounded off on the measure, calling it “a ‘license to bully’ that allows them to hide their irrational biases behind an extreme religious belief.”
…“Oftentimes, people that express that viewpoint become quote ‘bullied’ by administrators that do not share their views,” said David Fowler, the Family Action Council’s president.
The measure also says that anti-bullying curricula and materials should not endorse a viewpoint and that they should focus on the actions of the perpetrator, not the characteristics of the victim.
This raises some practical questions. Would schools be allowed to punish students who use slurs but don’t actually threaten harm? What about statements in which the slur was included in a religious statement, as in “God hates …”? (Members of a Kansas church frequently use this very phrasing in protest signs. The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld their right to protest near the funerals of service members.)
