Why not? A look at marriage equality in Tennessee
By Brandon Hutchison, President, TEP Foundation
The endorsements of marriage equality by President
Barack Obama and the NAACP as well as the setback in North Carolina have
brought marriage equality back into focus.
A short film released this spring by MTSU professor Dr. Bob Pondillo, The Miracles On Honey Bee Hill, also has
raised the question, “What are we doing to achieve marriage equality in
Tennessee?” To answer that question, we
need a little background to explain the state of marriage equality in Tennessee.
Tennessee’s constitution, similar to that of North
Carolina’s (recently amended) and 28 other states, specifically defines
marriage as only between one man and one woman.
Narrowly defining marriage to heterosexual unions in our state’s constitution
was achieved through a lengthy process that culminated in an 81% approval by
the voters in November 2006. No state,
county or local government agency can recognize, perform, or codify into law a
marriage between two people of the same gender--period. Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) was founded in
response to the start of the constitutional amendment process to define
marriage and waged its largest campaign to date to defeat the amendment at the
ballot. Despite these efforts 81% of
voters approved of defining marriage as only a heterosexual union in our
state’s constitution.
Are we giving up?
Is that the end of the story?
The simple answer is “No”.
The broader answer includes understanding that a direct attempt to amend
the constitution is unlikely in the near term.
TEP and TEP Foundation will continue to strive for full relationship
recognition equality. However, reality
dictates we must respond to the many immediate challenges to the safety,
security and basic dignity of LGBT persons in Tennessee. We must focus our efforts and our resources to
safeguard our youth, protect the rights we currently have, and expand our
rights where we can. In the past six
years since the constitution was changed to narrowly define marriage, we have faced
daunting attacks through legislation including: bills that would limit a school
teacher or staff’s ability to curb anti-LGBTQ bullying, protect hateful,
bullying speech in our schools under the guise of protecting religious freedom,
require transgender persons to use a public restroom opposite their gender
expression, outlaw civil unions or domestic partnership recognition, strip away
the ability of an LGBT person to legally adopt, and many more. Last year, Tennessee became the first state in
the nation to pass a law that removes a local government’s ability to require
private businesses to not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender
identity or expression. Tennessee is
also the only state that by law does not allow a transgender person to change
his/ her sex on a birth certificate. My
point is, there are many immediate challenges that must be confronted.
Does that mean we don’t care about marriage equality?
Quite the opposite is true.
We want marriage equality in Tennessee as LGBT persons deserve the full
benefits and dignity it conveys. We also
want our youth to stop choosing suicide as an alternative to being bullied at school
and for workers to be able to work without fear of LGBT-biased discrimination. In short, we want to maintain and expand upon
the basic level of safety, security and dignity LGBT persons currently have in
Tennessee. In our near future, those are
the tangible areas where we can make a real difference and we can do it in the
short term. Marriage equality, because
of the amendment to the constitution, is a long term proposition.
What would it take to achieve full marriage equality in
Tennessee?
If we concentrated all our efforts and resources on securing
marriage equality in Tennessee today, the earliest opportunity to do so through
Tennessee’s constitutional amendment process would be November of 2016. The only legislative way to do so in less than 4 ½ years
would be to call a constitutional convention for the purpose of redefining marriage. Even if we could manage to get a majority of
Tennessee voters to support marriage equality, the cost of holding a
constitutional convention would be discouraging enough to eliminate the
majority needed to vote to hold such convention. In addition, the cost of a 4 ½ year fight
would likely require $4-6 million to offer a real chance of success. (Those
opposed to the amendment in North Carolina spent $3 million and outspent the
competition 2-to-1. On election day, they
were able to convince only 39% of the population to vote to oppose an amendment which broadly restricted any relationship recognition, including marriage, to a heterosexual union.) Tennessee does not have
a record of financially supporting pro-LGBT causes with that kind of
investment. I firmly believe if TEP and
TEP Foundation could achieve financial support over the next 5 years of just one
third of that amount, Tennessee would likely see full employment, housing
and public accommodations protections and comprehensive anti-bullying legislation. Knowing this, I personally could not vote as
a board member in favor of pursuing the single victory outcome of marriage
equality with an under-funded effort when we could seize the opportunity to
directly improve the dignity, safety and security of every LGBT person in
Tennessee.
Will Tennessee ever achieve equality in our marriage
laws?
Yes, we will. And
whether that is achieved by amending our constitution once again or by a
successful court challenge to invalidate the current language in our state’s constitution,
TEP and TEP Foundation will play a determined role in the effort. Until public will shifts more determinately
toward demanding marriage equality, we will act responsibly to pursue every
avenue to achieve an equal level of safety, security and dignity for all
Tennesseans regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity or
expression. And TEP Foundation will
partner with people, like Dr. Pondillo, who has used his unique talent and
skill to produce a thought provoking short film in favor of marriage equality.
(Check it out www.miraclesonhoneybeehill.com.)
This will keep momentum on our side and the public will shifting toward
marriage equality.