Morning Roundup: “Don’t Say Gay” in Tennessee

Tennessee wants to ban any mention of homosexuality in grade school, Iowa may be legalizing the murder of abortion providers, and Planned Parenthood clinics - and their advocates - across the country warn about the devastating impact of the Pence amendment.

Tennessee wants to ban any mention of homosexuality in grade school, Iowa may be legalizing the murder of abortion providers, and Planned Parenthood clinics – and their advocates – across the country warn about the devastating impact of the Pence amendment.

  • Tennessee legislators have introduced a bill opponents are calling, “Don’t Say Gay,” which would ban the mention of homosexuality in any sexuality curriculum in grades K-8. They say it is to ensure age-appropriate education, but it’s really about fear and bigotry. Bill sponsor Stacy Campfield says, “If we’re talking about homosexuality, we are talking about specific acts that are going to be unhealthy for anybody to engage in outside of marriage.” First, unhealthy? What makes a specific sexual act unhealthy? And secondly, gay folks can’t get married in your state, so that sentence pretty much makes no sense.
  • South Dakota backed down from its bill that would legalize the murder of abortion providers, but a combination of laws in Iowa could lead to the same result. The legislature has introduced two separate bills – one to declare personhood from the moment of conception, and another to allow the use of deadly force “’any place at which the person has a right to be present,’ and that in such instances, the citizen has the right to use reasonable force, including deadly force, to protect himself or a third party from serious injury or death or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”
  • Planned Parenthood clinics across the country are bracing for impact based on the House vote last Friday to defund the organization. In Arizona, 40,000 people would lose access to care, a California representative says the results of the cuts would be devastating, a Minneapolis woman says her sisters life was saved by a routine exam at Planned Parenthood, the Pennsylvania chapters of the organization say they would have to shut their doors if the amendment became law, hundreds of thousands of families in Texas would be without basic reproductive health care, in Utah, over 40,000 people would be affected,  and the Southern Oregon affiliate says their 25,000 patients are at risk.

Feb 23