Tennessee Enacts Anti-Gay Bill Backed by Tennessee Chamber of Commerce

As America Blog Gay is reporting, the Governor of Tennessee has signed the anti-gay bill passed by the Tennessee Legislature compliments of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and its Board of Directors member, Nissan, FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare. The bill makes it illegal for an municipality in Tennessee to enact anti-discrimination protections for LGBT citizens. Obviously, it is time to boycott the state of Tennessee in every way possible - as well as boycott all of the corporations who knowingly supported this legislation and deliberately threw LGBT citizens under the bus. The only good news is that the statute is much like that passed by Colorado nearly two decades ago which was struck down as unconstitutional by the U. S. Supreme Court in Romer v. Evans. One can only hope that a challenge will be mounted to this hateful law. As promised last week, I'm dumping all of my Federal Express stock -I hope people all over the country will do the same - and I am in the process of finding a new overnight courier service for the law firm. Fedex can kiss my gay ass goodbye! Here are highlights from America Blog Gay:
*
The TN Chamber of Commerce, once of the forces behind anti-gay and anti-trans legislation that repeals a gay/trans civil rights ordinance in Nashville, and bans Tennessee cities from passing any civil rights legislation ever again, has just switched gears and is now opposing the bill.
*
Unfortunately, the Republican governor just signed the law.
*
Here is the Chamber's statement:
*
“The Tennessee Chamber supports a standard regulatory environment at the state level as opposed to potentially conflicting local regulations covering employment practices. That principle was the only interest the Chamber had in this bill. Because HB600/SB632 has turned into a debate on diversity and inclusiveness—principles which we support—we are now officially opposing this legislation in its present form.”
*
Adopted unanimously May 23, 2011
*
DEB WOOLLEY, PRESIDENT
TENNESSEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY
*
This is is a bit like finding a man innocent after you throw the switch to kill him. It's hard to see how any of these companies avoid blame since they're on the board of the local chamber, and their local representatives were warned about this legislation a good month ago - warned that it would repeal gay and trans rights - and they did nothing about it until it was far too late. Every single company that sits on the Tennessee chamber of commerce is responsible for this atrocity.