The sponsor of the transgender “bathroom bill,” Rep. Susan Lynn (R-Mount Juliet), has pulled it from consideration until at least 2017.
She said she wants to study the issue in greater depth.
If passed, the law would have restricted transgender students to use only the bathroom facilities consistent with their anatomical gender at birth. This would have applied to students at all of the state’s public schools and universities.
The measure drew protests from the Human Rights Campaign (HRCD), the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization.
Attorney General Herbert Slatery also has said the law could have made the state vulnerable to correction by the U.S. Department of Education or a loss of federal funding if the state refused to change the law.
Corporations in other states with similar bills have denounced such legislation and threatened to take their business elsewhere.
“Tennessee lawmakers were wise to learn from the mistakes of North Carolina and Mississippi and halt this cruel legislation that would have only worsened the marginalization and harassment transgender students already face on a daily basis,” said HRC President Chad Griffin.
See more HRC responses at http://bit.ly/HRC_bathroom-bill.
