Did Tennessee Go All The Way With Anti-Gay School Sex Bills?
The Tennessee Legislature has spent much of the past few years focusing on conservative Christian-based “education” bills, and has become so much of a joke that Governor Bill Haslam recently was forced intervene, and suggest they shelve the infamous “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The Governor has chastised the media for actually covering all the archaic, religion-based bills that have made a mockery of the institution itself, bills like one that would classify hand-holding “gateway sexual activity,” and bills that preach abstinence-only sex education. Even a cyber-bullying bill was debated, but of course did not pass after one lawmaker was upset that students who literally bullied classmates to death might become criminals, claiming that poor parenting and not bullies are the cause of gay youth and teen suicides.
Fortunately, today is the final day of the Legislature’s session.
Last week, lawmakers supporting the “Don’t Say Gay” bill compared same-sex marriage to bestiality, then Republican state Rep. Steve Cookson, the bill’s sponsor in the House, grew upset and said he felt misunderstood when Tennessee citizens expressed anger. Tennessee state Senator Stacey Campfield, then sponsor of the Senate’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill has claimed (falsely) it’s virtually impossible to contract HIV through heterosexual sex.
The fate of the infamous Tennessee “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which would make it illegal to discuss anything related to homosexuality, is now in doubt. One of the sponsors of the House version reportedly has decided he will not bring the bill to the floor today, although until the session is officially ended, he still can.
“An education measure known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill was posed for final action in the House, despite Haslam’s call for lawmakers to focus on other education issues,” the Knoxville News Sentinel reported:
But Republican Rep. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald told The Knoxville News Sentinel on Sunday night that he won’t seek a vote on the measure in exchange for a pledge from state education officials that they will send a letter to all state schools “telling them they cannot teach this subject in grades kindergarten through eight.”
“With that assurance and the opposition of some people who didn’t want to vote on it, I’ve decided simply not to bring it up,” said Hensley.
Perhaps what was most embarrassing for supporters of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was its sheer and utter uselessness. Aside from the fact that there are civil liberties issues at stake, and that the bill would demonize homosexuality even more, the bill, it turns out, was drafted to fix something that did not exist.
The “Don’t Say Gay” bill was placed on hold last month after lawmakers realized that the bill was not only unnecessary from their own standpoint, but counterproductive as well. In grades K -8, the bill would have made it illegal to discuss homosexuality in any manner at all, and allow only the discussion of heterosexual reproduction.
Lawmakers in the House put a hold on the bill upon learning — after more than two years of debate — that Tennessee does not have sex education classes in grades K – 8.
“We found out there really is not sex education curriculum in K-8 right now,†GOP Rep. Bill Dunn, one of the bill’s sponsors said.
In Tennessee, yet another ludicrous and poorly-drafted bill, the “embryo bill,” has became law. Miscarriage is now murder in Tennessee, under certain circumstances, which the bill insufficiently defines.
Earlier this month, the legislature passed a “monkey law” bill that protects teachers who teach creationism, and those who welcome “debate†on culture war issues, like global warming. The Governor was too embarrassed to sign the bill, but allowed it to become law anyway.
The Tennessee House last week passed a bill that would force thousands of Tennessee children every year to take a “maturity test†to enter kindergarten. The Senate did not act on the bill.
Senator Stacey Campfield‘s bill requiring drug testing — presumably, urine tests — for welfare recipients last week passed in the Senate by a 24-9 margin. The House did not take up the measure.
The Legislature also passed the now-infamous hand-holding-is-gateway-sexual-activity bill, “drafted by a conservative Christian organization,” and it’s on it’s way to Governor Bill Haslam’s desk. Will he sign it?
Image via Flickr.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
