Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is already beginning to implement the law.
A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.
Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.
Anyone who violates the new ordinance is barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at public events for two years. Anyone who violates the ordinance “in the presence of minors” is barred for five years.
An ACLU-backed challenge to the ordinance has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped city officials from implementing the measure. Last Monday, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss removing all books that might potentially violate the ordinance from the public library. The resolution was met with widespread outcry from city residents.
“When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert demanded during the Monday county meeting.
Murfreesboro city officials have already used the ordinance to ban four books that discuss LGBTQ themes. In August, the county library board pulled the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.
The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups. When it takes effect next year, children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books.
Library director Rita Shacklett worried in August that the new rules would prevent students from accessing books they need for a class. She explained that many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, are now classified as “adult.”
It’s unclear if the county steering committee plans to pull books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which includes multiple depictions of heterosexual sexual conduct.
Murfreesboro’s new ordinance is part of a much larger wave of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and the rest of the country. In the past year, the so-called Volunteer State became the first state to try to ban drag performances. That law was overturned in court.
In March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it, essentially gutting marriage equality. The bill was introduced in the Senate but deferred until next year.
link: https://newrepublic.com/post/176915/tennessee-town-ban-public-homosexuality
archive link: https://archive.ph/LFMMK
Oh man, I wish I still lived in Murfreesboro. I’m straight as could be but you better believe I’d find a buddy to kiss and hug in public just to piss off those backwards fuckwits.
Family member of the same gender? Time to hold hands everywhere we go…
Could make Murfreesboro the gayest town in America!
How the fuck do you bar someone from a town in the United States? Are they going to build checkpoints?
It’s happened before. See: sundown towns in Jim Crow south.
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Highly unlikely to happen in Murfreesboro; it’s got a population of over 157k (as of 2021). Living just outside Murfreesboro, I’m interested to see if this is actually enforced. I can’t imagine it would go over well if attempted. Either way, it’s infuriating.
Highly unlikely to happen in Murfreesboro
I bet a couple years ago you’d have said the same thing about the topic of the original post…
Being in the south, not so much. Still, there are limits to today’s intolerance in more populous areas.
no, the town will just quit investigating the murders until the undesirables get the message
The lesson here is that Murfreesboro hates America, despises freedom, shits on the soldiers who gave their lives for this country and pisses all over their graves. They have wiped their asses with the American flag and flushed it into the sewer. They are traitors of the highest order and should be treated as such.
Yeah that tracks.
That place sucks, and so does MTSU.
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Of course this would be how my town makes the news…
I hope you get to leave.
I just want to say that those are some bitchin book titles. Now I want to read them.
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They won’t… But the organizers should move the festival to a different state out of protest.
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Manchester, TN
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There is a reason Red Dead Redemption 2 has a clan of inbred folks called the Murfree brood.
Do people in those states just have nothing better to do? Like get a hobby and stop thinking about other people’s sex lives.
Shithole states. Keep NOLA and the Mississippi River, and go General Sherman on the rest. They cost more than they bring in anyway.
I’m sure it’s one of those things where a woman in a string bikini would be fine, but a guy in pink silver hot pants and a rainbow mesh shirt isn’t.
No more PDA
We all use smartphones now.
They get elected, and then expect the taxpayers to subsidize laws they know are unconstitutional. Leftists give money to lawyers and then have less to contribute to elections.
Unless the homosexuals are sexing it up in public, it sounds a lot like their classification of ‘sexual conduct’ would also include displays of heterosexuality.
Sounds like a puritan style ban on all forms of PDA; should either be equally applied to all sexuality, or struck from the books (in this case, seems to overly violate individual freedom, unless the locals overwhelmingly consider PDA to be indecent…). I wouldn’t go for the former option though… equality in enforcement would be a constant concern.
Also Murfreesboro is heavy duty Klan county.
What the fuck, man?!
