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Tennessee Enacts First-In-The-Nation Law To Stop Adults From Helping Minors Access Gender-Affirming Care

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Tennessee Enacts First-In-The-Nation Law To Stop Adults From Helping Minors Access Gender-Affirming Care


Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) on Tuesday signed a first-in-the-nation law to block adults from helping trans youth receive gender-affirming care without their parents’ consent.

Under the law, known as House Bill 2310, anyone who helps a child access gender-affirming care within Tennessee state lines can be sued for compensation by the minor or the minor’s parents. There are exceptions for the child’s own parents or legal guardians, for adults who have permission from the minor’s parents, and for transportation companies, like those that operate ride-sharing apps, buses or airlines, that a minor could take to get to a gender-affirming care clinic.

A previous version of the law included a criminal penalty, making anyone who “recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor within this state for the purpose of receiving a prohibited medical procedure” chargeable with a Class C felony.

Lee’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

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Tennessee had already banned gender-affirming care for minors — measures that can include puberty blockers, hormone replacement therapy and, in rare instances, gender-affirming surgery — last July, when Lee signed an earlier bill, Senate Bill 1, into effect.

“I want to be clear that this in no way bars parents or legal guardians from helping their child access to medical care that they need out-of-state,” Bryan Davidson, a policy director at the ACLU Tennessee, told HuffPost.

“I think that this is an attempt by the legislature to try to use misinformation and intimidation to try to get parents and families to self-censor themselves and to police their own behavior. That is the concerning part.”

If the problem of adults transporting minors across state lines were indeed a major issue, Davidson said, Tennessee already has a law on the books for that. “It’s called kidnapping,” he said.

The gender-affirming care ban, S.B. 1, was temporarily blocked for certain residents thanks to a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, but a federal appeals court ruled in the fall to allow the ban to stand.

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Advocacy groups are now waiting to see if the Supreme Court will take up the ACLU’s challenge to S.B. 1, known as L.W. v. Skrmetti, and weigh in on the question of who is allowed to make medical decisions for minors seeking gender-affirming care. If this highest court does take up the challenge to Tennessee’s ban, it could have precedent-setting ramifications for other states’ restrictions on care.

Lee signed a separate bill on Tuesday that penalizes “abortion trafficking of a minor” and makes it a misdemeanor office for a person to help a minor obtain an abortion or abortion-inducing drugs without consent from the minor’s parents. Several GOP-led states — most notably Idaho — have passed similar laws since the reversal of Roe v. Wade two years ago.

The two new laws go into effect July 1.

Tennessee’s state legislature, which has a Republican supermajority, has long been an early adopter of new kinds of anti-LGBTQ legislation. As governor, Lee has never issued a veto on an anti-LGBTQ bill, and the state has far outpaced the rest of the country in terms of anti-LGBTQ legislation.

During this year’s legislative session, Lee enacted at least eight new anti-LGBTQ+ laws. This includes laws that force school administrators to tell parents if their child asks to use a name or gender marker that differs from their birth certificate; allow people to refuse to perform same-sex marriages; permit foster families to discriminate against LGBTQ+ kids; and eliminate the state’s human rights commission.

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Last year, Tennessee became the first state to enact a drag ban, and blocked performances from taking place anywhere in public where children could be present. A federal judge ruled that ban unconstitutional, but the state Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is trying to argue for the ban to be applied in private spaces, as well.

The state also garnered national attention last year after Skrmetti probed Vanderbilt University Medical Center for the records of trans patients — both minors and adults — after a Nashville-based right-wing media figure posted an inflammatory, misleading information on Twitter about the hospital’s treatments for transgender children. The Department of Health and Human Services has since opened an investigation into Vanderbilt’s release of patient medical records.

“Tennessee has become a sort of policy laboratory for attacks on LGBTQ+ folks at the state level,” said Davidson. “The anti-LGBTQ legislation is largely driven to appease the small fringe activist base in Tennessee.”

Davidson added that Tennessee is one of the most “egregiously gerrymandered states in the nation” and has one of the lowest rates of voter turnout, allowing more extreme rhetoric and policy to flourish.



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RTI Reaction: Tennessee Comes From Behind to Win Double Overtime Thriller Against Texas A&M | Rocky Top Insider

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RTI Reaction: Tennessee Comes From Behind to Win Double Overtime Thriller Against Texas A&M | Rocky Top Insider


Tennessee Basketball
Photo via Tennessee Athletics

Tennessee Basketball fought from behind to earn an 87-82 win over Texas A&M in double overtime on Tuesday night in Knoxville. The Vols trailed for much of the game from the jump, but Tennessee pushed forward and found a way to win in front of its home fans in the Food City Center.

Tennessee spent more than 35 minutes trailing in that game, with much of that coming in consecutive minutes from the opening whistle. The Vols didn’t take the lead until the 5:29 mark in the second half, and still had to fight off a few Aggie runs in order to push the game into extra time. Tennessee and Texas A&M were tied at 71 at the end of regulation and tied at 75 after the first overtime, but the Vols outscored the Aggies by five in the final five minutes to pick up the win.

Tennessee had five double-digit scorers on Tuesday night, led by Nate Ament’s 23 points. The freshman forward also went 9-for-11 from the free-throw line with some clutch makes in the final stretch. Tennessee also outrebounded A&M 60 to 35 during the contest. It wasn’t always pretty, but it’s chalked up as a W in the record book.

After the game, RTI’s Ryan Schumpert and Ric Butler discussed their reactions to the Vols’ win on the RTI postgame show. The guys talked about Tennessee’s slow start, Ament’s big scoring night, impact players, and much more.

More From RTI: Three Quick Takeaways As Tennessee Basketball Finds Away Against Texas A&M

Check out the RTI: Reaction show below:

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RTI: Reaction



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Authorities asking for help with crash investigation in Washington County, Tennessee

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Authorities asking for help with crash investigation in Washington County, Tennessee


Authorities in Washington County, Tennessee, are asking for the public’s help following a crash that happened last month.

The crash took place shortly before 8 a.m. on December 30 in the 200 block of Liberty Hill Road.

Authorities are encouraging anyone with security cameras along that road to view their footage from that morning and look for a spray painted, black 2001 Chevrolet Silverado.

Anyone with information is asked to call (423) 788-1414. Folks can also report information anonymously via Tip411 at wcso.net.

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Tennessee bill rekindles debate over prayer in public schools

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Tennessee bill rekindles debate over prayer in public schools


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Prayer in public schools has been debated for generations, not over whether students may pray, but over how far government should go in regulating religion in the classroom.

The longstanding question is resurfacing at the Tennessee State Capitol, where Republican state Rep. Gino Bulso has introduced legislation challenging the modern interpretation of the separation of church and state.

Bulso’s bill argues that the principle of separation has drifted from its original intent and now restricts religious expression rather than protecting it. Supporters of the proposal said the result is not neutrality, but discrimination, treating religion as something to be excluded from public life instead of being accommodated.

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“It’s pushing the envelope,” said David Hudson, a constitutional law professor at Belmont University. “He’s going farther than that by suggesting the entire body of Supreme Court decisions after 1947 interpreting the Establishment Clause is wrong.”

The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. Courts have long interpreted that language as limiting government involvement in religion while still allowing individuals to freely practice faith.

Supporters of Bulso’s bill argue that recent applications of that principle have gone too far, creating an environment where religious expression is discouraged in public schools.

Opponents disagree, saying the Constitution requires government neutrality, particularly in a religiously diverse society.

“In a pluralistic country, you cannot have one-size-fits-all prayer,” Hudson said. “That’s part of why the separation exists.”

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House Democrats echoed that argument, pointing to what they say is already happening in Tennessee schools. In a statement to News 2, Senate Democratic Caucus Press Secretary Brandon Puttbrese said:

Tennessee public school students are already free to pray and study the Bible. No one is stopping them. In fact, there are student-led Bible study clubs already happening in the district he represents.

Instead of chasing problems that don’t exist, a better use of the legislature’s precious time would be to address the K-12 school funding crisis. Tennessee ranks 47th in public school student spending. That’s a real problem.

⏩ Read today’s top stories on wkrn.com

Newer religion-in-education cases have worked their way through the courts. Hudson said the bill may be designed to test how far that shift could go.

“It may be trying to introduce something that, if passed, is challenged,” he said. “And that would force courts to deal with recent Supreme Court precedent that has lowered the church-state separation barrier.”

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Lawmakers return to session on Tuesday. For the bill to become law, it must be referred to committee, pass hearings and votes in both the Tennessee House and Senate, and ultimately signed by the governor.



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