Republican lawmakers in the US are leaning into outdated definitions of obscenity to outlaw drag and ban books too

Republican lawmakers in the US are leaning into outdated definitions of obscenity to outlaw drag and ban books too

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”.

Earlier this month, following a legal challenge from the ACLU of Tennessee, the government of Murfreesboro removed “homosexuality” from the list of acts defined as “public indecency” by the city code. The small victory came after officials repeatedly refused to issue permits for the BoroPride Festival, citing the new ordinance.

  • oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world
    96·
    10 months ago

    I’m sure this won’t be a popular opinion, but how is this surprising? Gay marriage was voted down at the state level many times all across the country. Those voters are still out there and 5 supreme court justices didn’t change their opinions on homosexuality.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
      6·
      10 months ago

      True, but also some of those voters have changed their minds. I wouldn’t be surprised if my red state would overturn our constitutional ban on gay marriage if Obergefell were struck down, and Obergefell was against our state.

    • HandBreadedTools@lemmy.worldEnglish
      63·
      10 months ago

      This is the most worthless comment I’ve read on lemmy yet, not only is it wrong or also acts smug about it lmfao get outta here

      • beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        44·
        10 months ago

        Your entire comment history is antagonism or insults. I rarely even think this much less say it, but: please go back to Reddit. You’re the reason we all left there.

        • HandBreadedTools@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          10 months ago

          I was gonna reply doing the same thing but I checked my own comment history and nah you got a point. Didn’t realize how consistently irritated I get on here, I only comment when it’s something that pisses me off. Thank you for pointing that pattern out, it’s not something typical of me irl, as I tend to work around a variety of people in political spaces and am accustomed to working around differing ideals. Obviously, that doesn’t show at all in my comment history.

          That type of commenting isn’t how I like to talk to people in real life, as I prefer to treat everyone seriously. I think that I kept deciding to just say fuck it for a second and go off, which lead to what you see there. Anyways, thanks again for pointing it out, I was unaware overly toxic I’ve become on here.

          Edit: meant to also say I’m gonna make a point to talk to people the way I do irl from here on.

          • beefbot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            1·
            9 months ago

            I was feeling all warm and fuzzy about your response, and thank you for it! Then I watched myself go write a similar comment a few minutes ago so… yknow, no one’s perfect 🤷‍♂️✌️

      • oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world
        25·
        10 months ago

        Based on documented state voting the majority of the population would agree with my statement. You are in the small minority. Bitch all you like, that will not change.