Conservatives across the country just seem absolutely determined to keep discrimination alive. This time it’s the state government of Tennessee, which just passed a bill that allows therapists to refuse service to patients if it violates their “sincerely held principles”.
The bill is known as House Bill 1840 and Senate Bill 1556. Republican Governor Bill Haslam doesn’t believe the bill is discriminatory at all. He said in a statement:
“I believe it is reasonable to allow these professionals to determine if and when an individual would be better served by another counselor better suited to meet his or her needs”.
The bill went into effect immediately. The American Counseling Association was planning to hold a conference in Nashville, but they are now reconsidering. Nashville’s mayor, Democrat Megan Barry, gave her own opinion on the law:
“It hurts our LGBT citizens, negatively impacts our economy and seeks to undermine the counseling profession. As mayor of Nashville, I’ll continue to do whatever I can to create a warm and welcoming city free from discrimination”.
The executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, Chris Sanders, believes that LGBT patients in rural areas won’t have many options for treatment.
The organization has started a new initiative that allows workers to identify that they are pro-equality. The Counseling Unconditionally list can be found on the Tennessee Equality Project’s website.
TEP is also circulating a petition that asks the governor to veto a bill that would remove funding from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville’s diversity office. The office has been attacked for trying to be more inclusive.
House Bill 1840 comes when North Carolina is currently dealing with the effects of HB 2 , while Mississippi is dealing with HB 1523. HB 2 removes various protections for LGBT people, among other things. HB 1523 allows business and state workers to deny services to LGBT people.
These so-called religious freedom laws have been popping up lately. It’s an unfortunate epidemic. These bigots know that they are on the wrong side of history.
Featured image via Flickr-shilohnps1862 available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license
