{"id":1107,"date":"2012-03-16T21:21:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www3.law.harvard.edu\/journals\/hlpr\/?p=1107"},"modified":"2015-10-02T15:24:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:24:21","slug":"tennessee-dont-say-gay-bill-stalled-in-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/lpr\/2012\/03\/16\/tennessee-dont-say-gay-bill-stalled-in-legislature\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee &#8220;Don&#8217;t Say Gay&#8221; Bill Stalled in Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Sushila Rao<\/p>\n<p><\/em>Sponsors of a Bill seeking to\u00a0ban the teaching of gay issues to elementary and middle school students have delayed the measure in the Tennessee House of Representatives, ostensibly to allow consideration of a more comprehensive bill that would place restrictions on \u201cfamily life education\u201d curricula.<\/p>\n<p>The amended version of the controversial \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay Bill,\u201d House Bill 229, \u00a0would limit all sexually related instruction to \u201cnatural human reproduction science\u201d in kindergarten through eighth grade. \u00a0The precise meaning of these terms has been left undefined. \u00a0The original Bill would have simply prohibited public elementary and middle schools from providing \u201cany instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.\u201d \u00a0Supporters of the Bill see it as a vindication of\u00a0the rights of parents to teach their children about sexuality as they see fit, in accordance with their beliefs.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe Bill was passed by the Tennessee Senate last year, and had been roundly criticized by school\u00a0counselors\u00a0who would have to provide evasive or untruthful answers to students\u2019 queries about sexual orientation. \u00a0Furthermore, it is unlikely that the measure would in fact curb talk about homosexuality among school children but will simply send and reinforce the signal that it should be stigmatized. \u00a0Yet another set of\u00a0\u00a0critics fear that House Bill 229 would inadvertently liberalize sex education in the state\u2019s middle and elementary schools, by making it easier to speak more loosely about heterosexuality and procreation.<\/p>\n<p>Opponents of the Bill\u00a0believe\u00a0that the procedural move of delaying debate until the end of the current legislative session is an indication that the Bill\u2019s proponents are actually backing away from it altogether. \u00a0 \u00a0The focus has now shifted to House Bill 3621, which is backed by social conservatives, and is being promoted as a holistic, abstinence education measure devised in response to the state\u2019s high incidence of teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. \u00a0The Bill would\u00a0\u00a0allow the teaching of safe sex, but the curriculum would have to be \u201cabstinence-centered,\u201d emphasizing that abstinence is withholding from \u201cany kind of sexual contact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sushila Rao Sponsors of a Bill seeking to\u00a0ban the teaching of gay issues to elementary and middle school students [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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