Nashville Loses 550 Person Convention Thanks to Anti-Gay Law
Tennessee has lost its second convention in two days over Governor Bill Haslam‘s anti-gay “religious freedom” law, and this one may smart a bit more. Centers for Spiritual Living, a faith-based organization, is now boycotting Tennessee, citing  HB 1840, which allows therapists and counselors to refuse service to clients based on their claimed sincerely held principles – including religious beliefs.
“When the legislation was sent over to the governor’s desk, we actually had great hopes that it would be vetoed and canceled,” Kenn Gordon, spiritual leader for Centers for Spiritual Living, tells The Tennessean. “But it wasn’t, and so when he signed it into law that was the decision-point we made to pull out.”
“There are a lot of LGBTQ people that are involved in the world, period, but (also) in our organization,” said Gordon, who heads the “global community comprised of more than 400 spiritual communities, teaching chapters, study groups and other ministries in 30 countries.” The organization has between 250,000 and 500,000Â congregates.
“We did not think in the practice of openness and inclusivity that that law would serve them very well. They felt violated in the action of that, so we chose to take a principled stand. It’s against what we hold to be true and believe. We believe in the equality of all humanity.”
On Tuesday, Tennessee lost a 3000 person conference when the American Counseling Association (ACA) canceled its 2017 conference, also scheduled for Nashville. The ACA is the largest counseling organization in the world. Its CEO Richard Yep says HB 1840 is “discriminatory” and “targets” LGBT people. In a video he stated the Tennessee law is “in clear violation of the American Counseling Association’s code of ethics.”
The Tennessee law, the first of its kind in the nation, harms LGBTQ people, especially young people who may need support the most but don’t have the resources to travel to another therapist or counselor who might be many miles away. One quarter of all Tennesseans live in rural areas.
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Image by Brent Moore via Flickr and a CC licenseÂ