A Republican Tennessee state lawmaker is pushing a bill that would ban any books dealing with LGBTQ “issues or lifestyles” from public schools, claiming they are inappropriate and offend Christians.
Rep. Bruce Griffey’s bill will be taken up next week by the House Education Instruction Subcommittee, WBIR reports. Ironically, Griffey was just stripped of all his committee assignments, with includes the Education Instruction Subcommittee, after trying to get a different bill to the House floor after it was voted down in committee.
“Tennessee public schools should focus student attention on academic curricula critical for student success, such as reading, science, and mathematics,” the bill reads. It also says, “textbooks and instructional materials and supplemental instructional materials that promote, normalize, support, or address controversial social issues, such as lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender (LGBT) lifestyles are inappropriate.”
The legislation, should it become law, might be deemed unconstitutional, as it also claims “the promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles in public schools offends a significant portion of students, parents, and Tennessee residents with Christian values.”
Rep. Griffey’s legislation also likens the teaching of LGBTQ issues to that of teaching religion, saying “the promotion of LGBT issues and lifestyles should be subject to the same restrictions and limitations placed on the teaching of religion in public schools.”
On his campaign website, which has a Trump-themed logo and a large photo of Griffey kissing his wife, he says “Marriage is between a Man and a Woman and a part of existence recognized by the State,” and then attacks same-sex couples and LGBTQ people by saying it is “common courtesy” for LGBTQ people to live their lives in private.
“I am not concerned with, nor do I wish to know or contemplate about the voluntary sexual activity two consenting adults that is not harmful or detrimental,” he says. “We don’t know nor do we want to know about the sexual behavior of others.”