'Archaic': the Tennessee town that made homosexuality illegal

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) For five months this year, homosexuality was prohibited in a Tennessee college town.

In June, the city council of Murfreesboro enacted an ordinance outlawing “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct”. The rule did not explicitly mention homosexuality, but LGBTQ+ people in the town quickly realized that the ordinance references 21-72 of the city code, which categorizes homosexuality as an act of indecent sexual conduct.

The ordinance was essentially a covert ban on LGBTQ+ existence.

Erin Reed, one of the first and only national journalists to cover the ordinance earlier this year, noted that Murfreesboro isn’t “the only community that has these old archaic bits of code that target homosexuality”. ...............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/26/tennessee-homosexuality-lgbtq-book-bans-florida

[William769]

1. This is a fight that we are well prepared for

Because we have had to fight it so many times before.

[dembotoz]

2. as we saw with roe the concept of settled law does not exist in todays gop

their idea of piety over rules your temporary legal system...gods law is eternal of some such

[underpants]

4. Remember how their activists maneuvered on abortion

They got elected locally and started changing every thing from building codes to proximity and attending requirements related to hospitals to zoning even. Those same type of people (or the second generation/ iteration) are still there and did this I’m sure.

[Initech]

13. I've been saying it for years - the anti-abortion movement has nothing to do with abortion.

It's about installing a white wing, right wing fascist authoritarian dictatorship. They use babies as a crutch like they do with the flag and the Bible. All they care about is the symbolism.

[underpants]

3. Article doesn't mention it but I was wondering about hotel stays

Could a gay couple be arrested or even denied a room under this? Almost an “Easy Rider” situation.

[Mysterian]

5. Tennessee could be such a lovely state

were it not for the idiot bumpkins running the state.

[peggysue2]

9. Could be

I lived in east Tennessee for over 20 years. The region itself is beautiful and the Smoky Mountains are stunning.

The spoiler is fanaticism and religious intolerance--hate masquerading as Christianity, extremism pretending to be normal.

[orleans]

6. it just says "nudity or sexual conduct" which includes *anyone* having sex or taking a shower!

arrest the mayor! the town council! the pastors!

[pnwmom]

7. I assumed the modifier "public" applied to all the nouns. nt

[orleans]

10. i don't think it necessarily does.

but if so then just don't have public sexual conduct.

maybe those randy college kids are "getting lucky" in parking lots, on the football field, in the dim corners of restaurants... or even theaters (ala boebert)

[Lars39]

8. Murfreesboro is also the same city that didn't want a mosque built there.

Murfreesboro is definitely not liberal, despite it being a college town.

[NotVeryImportant]

11. Interesting...

[keithbvadu2]

12. Wonder if they also have laws against speeding? How well does that work?