TN Senate Approves Bill To Repeal Local LGBT Rights Laws

In Tennessee, the State Senate has passed legislation to prohibit local ordinances which ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. The only city in Tennessee which has a local gay rights ordinance is Nashville, so basically the state legislature is repealing Nashville's ordinance and preventing any other locality from enacting  LGBT civil rights ordinance in the future.

A local news report from NewsChannel5:

A vote Thursday afternoon in the Senate all but cemented the passing of state's Equal Access to Intrastate Commerce Act. Senators voted 21 to 8 on the proposal that would prohibit local governments from creating anti-discrimination laws that are stricter than the state's has passed the Senate.

"It had nothing to do with intrastate; it had nothing to do with jobs. It had to do with some people that folks didn't like. And they twisted it up, dressed it up in bows to make it look different," said State Sen. Thelma Harper of Nashville.

The move by state legislators will repeal Metro Nashville's ordinance barring contractors from doing business with the city if they don't ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Ostensibly, the legislators are claiming that they want to have uniform statewide rules on non-discrimination. I suppose it's just a coincidence (or oversight) that they have also refused to pass a bill which would include sexual orientation or gender identity as characteristics protected under statewide civil rights laws.