Tennessee passes anti-LGBT bill HB1840.

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Following in the footsteps of North Carolina and Mississippi, Tennessee has passed their own anti-LGBT law. This law, however, is much different than the ones passed in NC and TN. HB 1840 will allow therapists and counselors the right to refuse service to Tennessee's LGBT residents.
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Counselors and therapists can deny services based on "sincerely held principles." Before the bill passed, the wording was a bit different. In the original bill, therapists and counselors could deny services based on "sincerely held and religious belief." Legislature changed the wording in order to broaden the reasoning behind denying services. (Or to cover their butts when it comes time to deny services to, not only LGBT, but people of color, those who aren't Christian, those who are poor, those who "live in sin," and those who have premarital sex. It is the bible belt after all!)

Those who oppose the bill believe that the wording could provide therapists and counselors the opportunity to legally deny services based on someone's skin color. (Well, duh!)

According to the American Counseling Association (ACA), "professionals cannot deny services based on personally held values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors." Republican Sen. Jack Johnson said that the "ACA is discriminatory, not the new law." (Yeah. Okay.)

My Two Cents

This new law puts the mental health and well-being of Tennessee's LGBT community at serious risk. If being LGBT in today's world wasn't hard enough, now we have these new laws going into effect, making it harder for LGBT individuals to be their authentic selves. What about our LGBT youth? Who will they talk to when the rest of the world has shut them out?
LGBT youth have one of the, if not the highest, rates of suicide. Denying LGBT youth and adults counseling services is going to raise those rates substantially. Shame on all those who voted in favor of HB1840! What ever happened to "Do No Harm?"

It's ridiculous how we can go from having gay marriage legalized across the country, to having these anti-LGBT laws spreading throughout the country like an infectious virus.

My hope is that this law, and all the other anti-LGBT laws, are repealed.

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