To the Representatives and Senators of the Tennessee Legislature and to Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam

Eight Reasons to Pass and Sign HB2414/SB2387 into Law

1. HB2414 will protect the privacy rights of students in Tennessee’s public schools. Boys and girls should not have to worry about invasion of privacy when they use the restroom, and the presence of a biological male in a girls’ bathroom or a biological female in a boys’ bathroom is an invasion of privacy.
2. HB2414 would set a statewide policy that would enhance the safety of students in Tennessee’s public schools.
3. If bathroom policies in Tennessee’s public schools are left up to individual school districts, those who desire to limit restroom access to students based on biology will be left twisting in the wind against an almost omnipotent ACLU. In abandoning these school districts, the state also will be abandoning the students in them, as well as their parents.
4. Contrary to the report on HB2414 released by Attorney General Slatery, advocates of HB2414 are standing on solid legal ground. The AG’s report claimed that HB2414 runs contrary to Title IX policies “because the U.S. Department of Education…interprets Title IX to require that transgender students be given access to restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their ‘gender identity’ instead of their anatomical gender.” Title IX doesn’t actually require this. According to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco, “DOE’s interpretation is completely off-base. What the law says is what matters, and the law explicitly allows separate restrooms and locker rooms. The DOE oversees but cannot change Title IX, which only Congress can modify, so the agency has no legal basis for forcing schools to open restrooms to students of both sexes.” Matt Sharp, Legal Counsel for ADF, puts it this way: “[U]nder current law, states and school districts that enact laws and policies requiring students to use restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their biological sex do not violate Title IX. The threats about losing funding are simply empty threats.”
5. Large corporations that have adopted a politically correct line (not at all a courageous stance, given the number of corporations that have done so) must not be allowed to dictate a state’s policy through economic blackmail. Actually, these companies are putting themselves in a very untenable position when they threaten legislators and governors with economic ruin—and then look to these same leaders to establish and maintain policies that foster business-friendly environments.
6. Expounding on point #5, we note that, generally speaking, states with family-friendly policies and laws have the most robust economies and the brightest economic futures. The 2016 annual report by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) confirms this. Rich States, Poor States is ALEC’s “Economic Competiveness Index” that includes state rankings. North Carolina ranks #2; Mississippi #17, and Tennessee #7. The Wall Street Journal recently sounded this word of caution to big business: “The private economy would be foolish to reject America’s heritage of liberty, which has powered the greatest engine of economic success in history. And if corporations want the benefits of a business-friendly environment, with lower taxes and less regulation, they would do well to recognize who enacts such policies: people with center-right social values, not the hard Left.” Consider the glaring difference in these two events that took place in North Carolina.
7. Policy makers cannot assume that giving in to activists’ radical demands will lead to a truce. Recent events in North Carolina, as well as events occurring a year ago in Indiana, are instructive for us at this point. As we have seen, radical activists in the LGBT lobby never will stop making demands and never will be satisfied. How much will we surrender before we are willing to fight? And if we we won’t fight to keep male students out of girls’ bathrooms in our schools, is there a place where we will be willing to draw the line at all?
8. A biology-based bathroom policy in Tennessee’s public schools fosters order and is based on reality and common sense.

Passing HB2414 is the right thing to do. It may not be the easy thing to do, but that which is truly worthwhile seldom is easy. Surely the courage we’ve seen in North Carolina’s leaders isn’t unique to North Carolina. Tennessee also has courageous leaders who are willing to do what’s right for our state and its people, especially its children.

Copyright © 2016 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All Rights Reserved.

The above images originally appeared on the April 15, 2016 edition of Family Research Council’s Washington Update.