Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is already beginning to implement the law.
A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.
Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.
Anyone who violates the new ordinance is barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at public events for two years. Anyone who violates the ordinance “in the presence of minors” is barred for five years.
An ACLU-backed challenge to the ordinance has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped city officials from implementing the measure. Last Monday, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss removing all books that might potentially violate the ordinance from the public library. The resolution was met with widespread outcry from city residents.
“When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert demanded during the Monday county meeting.
Murfreesboro city officials have already used the ordinance to ban four books that discuss LGBTQ themes. In August, the county library board pulled the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.
The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups. When it takes effect next year, children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books.
Library director Rita Shacklett worried in August that the new rules would prevent students from accessing books they need for a class. She explained that many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, are now classified as “adult.”
It’s unclear if the county steering committee plans to pull books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which includes multiple depictions of heterosexual sexual conduct.
Murfreesboro’s new ordinance is part of a much larger wave of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and the rest of the country. In the past year, the so-called Volunteer State became the first state to try to ban drag performances. That law was overturned in court.
In March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it, essentially gutting marriage equality. The bill was introduced in the Senate but deferred until next year.
link: https://newrepublic.com/post/176915/tennessee-town-ban-public-homosexuality
archive link: https://archive.ph/LFMMK
I dont need a god. I know better then to kill, rape, steal, etc because I have empathy. Only the evil need a book and a god to stop them.
As if evil people would let a God stop them from doing evil… if anything, they’ll invent one who approves of their evil. Wasn’t that exactly your problem with Christianity earlier?
Either way, I remain unconvinced of your supposed empathy. We’ve been arguing for an entire day now and I’ve never once called you any insults, yet you keep calling me a fascist, a liar, evil, and so on, seemingly expecting that any of that is going to intimidate me or convince me of your opinions. Which it won’t. In fact, it’s achieving quite the opposite. That doesn’t exactly show a great capacity for empathy if you ask me.
I have nicely put up with exactly that from “your side of the aisle” for decades and I am done with it. We know who and what you are, and you have demonstrated it repeatedly with your blatant lies and fascist dog whistles. You do not get to take any high roads…you lost that ability very early on in this conversation.
Ah yes, that makes sense – because other people abused you and I didn’t, you get to take your anger out on me. Is that how superior empathy works?
Isn’t that exactly the same behavior that you are criticizing about this new law, that it is abusive towards gay people who aren’t intending to harm children, just because others may have not had that much restraint?
Sorry, but I remain utterly unconvinced that you are in any way, shape, or form morally superior to the people you are criticizing. You’re doing exactly the same thing you’re criticizing them for. You are a hypocrite, nothing else.
As I said and have pointed out repeatedly already: you showed your cards at the beginning. Your attempt at sea lioning now that you have been publicly humiliated here will not work.