A Brief History of Tennessee Homophobia

Tennessee has been in the news recently for its new law allowing therapists with religious objections to turn away LGBT clients and its (withdrawn, for now) anti-transgender "bathroom bill." But in the state that nurtured blues, rock, and country music, there has been a cacophony of homophobia coming from some extremists for decades. While the state has been more progressive in some ways than its Southern neighbors — Tennessee courts, for instance, struck down the state's sodomy law several years before the U.S. Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas ruling — there are plenty of incidents to fill a history book of Tennessee homophobia just from this century, including attempts to nullify marriage equality, a "don't say gay" bill, and an invalidation of LGBT-inclusive city nondiscrimination laws, years before North Carolina enacted a similar measure. Click through to learn more.