Tennessee bill would largely ban Pride flags in public school classrooms

The Tennessee House handed a bill on Monday that would largely ban displaying LGBTQ flags in public school classrooms.

The 70-24 vote in the Republican-controlled House sends the laws to the Senate, the place a remaining vote may occur as early as this week.

Republicans minimize a heated debate brief, main Democratic Rep. Justin Jones to yell that House Speaker Cameron Sexton was out of order and ignoring folks’s requests to talk. Republicans responded by voting Jones out of order, halting his rapid feedback.

Earlier, at the very least two folks opposing the bill had been kicked out of the gallery for speaking over the proceedings as Democrats and different opponents criticized the laws as unfairly limiting a serious image of the LGBTQ neighborhood in colleges.

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The Republican-controlled Tennessee House handed laws on Monday that would largely ban the show of LGBTQ flags in public school classrooms. (AP)

“I am proud when I walk into the public schools in my city, to see the LGBTQ flag in the classrooms, proudly put up by teachers who understand the suffering that many of their students go through,” Democrat Rep. Jason Powell stated. “We should be welcoming and celebrating our students, not hating on them.”

The bill defines “displaying” a flag by a school or worker as exhibiting or putting the merchandise “anywhere students may see the object.”

The measure would enable sure flags to be displayed, with exceptions for some eventualities. Approved flags embrace the U.S. flag, the Tennessee flag, flags thought-about protected historic gadgets beneath state regulation, in addition to flags of Native American tribes, native governments’ armed forces and prisoners of struggle or these lacking in motion, different international locations and their native governments, schools or universities or the faculties themselves.

Other flags may very well be quickly displayed as a part of a “bona fide” course curriculum. Certain teams allowed to make use of school buildings may present their flags whereas utilizing the grounds beneath the bill.

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Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, walks previous protesters earlier than a legislative session together with a vote on a bill banning LGBTQ flags in public school classrooms. (AP)

The laws would implement the ban by counting on lawsuits by dad and mom or guardians of scholars who attend, or are eligible to attend, public school in the district in query. The lawsuits may problem the show of flags by a school, worker or its brokers that would not fall beneath the proposed standards for which flags would be allowed in classrooms.

Republican Rep. Gino Bulso, the bill’s sponsor, stated dad and mom reached out to him with complaints about “political flags” in classrooms. When requested whether or not the bill would enable the Confederate flag to be displayed, he stated the bill would not change the present regulation about when such a logo may very well be proven. He stated the bill’s exceptions may very well be utilized to Confederate flags for authorized curriculum and sure historic gadgets that already can’t be eliminated with out intensive state approval.

“What we’re doing is making sure parents are the ones who are allowed to instill in their children the values they want to instill,” Bulso stated.

The Senate’s model of the bill would be extra restrictive about who may file a lawsuit over a flag, limiting it to college students, dad and mom or guardians of scholars or staff at that particular school.

Tennessee Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, presents a bill on the House ground that would stop Pride flags from being displayed in colleges throughout a legislative session. (AP)

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union despatched a letter to city, school and school district officers warning that beneath First Amendment court docket precedent, “public schools may prohibit private on-campus speech only insofar as it substantially interferes with or disrupts the educational environment, or interferes with the rights of other students.”

Bulso stated displaying the Pride flag doesn’t represent protected free speech for school staff.

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The bill comes as Tennessee Republicans have already moved to limit classroom conversations about gender and sexuality, ban gender transition therapy for minors and restrict occasions the place sure drag performers are allowed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.