From State Rep. Bruce Griffey, R-Paris:
Capitol Update: A Week in Review, Legislation Protecting Religious Freedom, Female Athletes, Tennessee Businesses and School Students
Last week, a bill protecting religious freedom co-sponsored by Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) passed the TN General Assembly and is now heading to the Governor’s desk for approval. Specifically, House Bill 1137 codifies the First Amendment by prohibiting the state, political subdivisions or a public official from limiting the lawful operations of a church or religious organization during a state of emergency or natural disaster. “During the Covid 19 pandemic, there were efforts made to place restrictions on churches and restrict the right of Tennesseans to gather to worship. This bill, which has passed both the House and the Senate, and I anticipate will become law, will stop this from ever happening again,” explained Griffey.
The Tennessee House of Representatives also passed a bill last week co-sponsored by Griffey to prevent obscene materials from being available to Tennessee students in K-12 school libraries. Specifically, House Bill 1944 removes an exemption in existing state law that allows for certain individuals to knowingly distribute obscene materials to minors in a public school without the risk of criminal charges. The bill also requires every board of education in the state to adopt a policy that allows a student’s parent or legal guardian to report any potentially obscene material in a school’s library to their local director of schools for review. “I want to personally thank country music singer John Rich for bringing to the attention of myself and my legislative colleagues the pornographic material that he found available to his school-age children in a middle TN school and being a parent advocate to prevent other minor children from being exposed to pornographic material,” explained Griffey.
Under the legislation, there would be a review process, and any material in question would be removed from a school’s library for at least 30 days in order to give the local board of education time to determine whether the material is obscene, harmful to minors or appropriate for students. If the material is found to be acceptable, it would be returned to the school’s library. If not, it would be permanently removed from the libraries of all public schools in the district. “Decisions with respect to community standards and what a reasonable person would deem obscene or pornographic needs to be left at the local level with those school board members who are elected by the people of their local community, and this legislation accomplishes this purpose,” Griffey stated.
A third bill co-sponsored by Griffey that was passed by the TN House of Representatives last week is designed to protect businesses from false online reviews. Specifically, House Bill 1664 makes it a violation of the Consumer Protection Act to post a factually false review about a business on the internet. The legislation not only makes it a criminal act, but it also allows a
civil court to award damages and attorney’s fees to the falsely maligned business.
A fourth bill co-sponsored by Griffey that was passed by the TN House of Representatives last week ensures that high school students in Tennessee are taught the benefits of America’s founding principles. Specifically, House Bill 2742 requires students in grades 9-12 in Tennessee to be taught about the virtues of capitalism and the constitutional republic form of government as compared to other political and economic systems such as communism and socialism.
A final bill advancing through House Committees that Griffey is co-sponsoring is House Bill 2316, which is aimed at protecting female college athletes from being disadvantaged by transgender sports competitors. The bill ensures biological males are not able to displace biological females in competitive college events which could deny female athletes victories, opportunities or scholarships. “In 2021, I co-sponsored legislation that was passed into law to ensure that middle and high school students compete in athletic competitions that correspond with their sex at birth. This new legislation takes it a step further by not only expanding the law to cover college sports, but also creating a private cause of action for violations that deprive a student of an athletic opportunity or causes direct or indirect harm to a student,” explained Griffey.
“We are seeing more and more transgender athletes competing and posting victories in traditionally gendered sports competitions, and doing so to the detriment of girls and women biologically born female. Boys and men, due to testosterone levels, bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size, have physical advantages in sports relative to girls and women. These very biological differences are the reason sports have been bisected into separate male and female competitions – to allow females to compete in an environment that is not weighted against them. For this reason, it is fundamentally unfair to allow someone biologically born a male, but who now identifies as a female, to compete in an athletic competition against biologically born females, who are disadvantaged. I believe it is important for states to take a stand, and Tennessee is doing so through House Bill 2316,” Griffey concluded.