TTPC

On Wednesday, State Representative Jeanne Richardson (D-Memphis) decided to roll HB0335 in the Tennessee House Judiciary Committee until January 2010. This bill would add “gender identity or expression” to Tennessee’s hate crimes sentencing enhancement statute. The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition supports this decision. Opposition to the bill emerged claiming, falsely, that it would criminalize religious speech, even though there has never been a single case of a minister sentenced under current statute for promoting hatred, and that it would cover pedophiles, even though nobody has ever made a logical argument that “gender identity or expression” has anything to do with pedophilia.

We ask all of you to continue meeting with members of both the Tennessee House of Representatives and Tennessee State Senate to educate them about the necessity of expandng Tennessee code to protect victim’s rights and protect public safety by extending sentences for those convicted of assault on a transgender, gender variant, or gender non-conformist person.

If you do not know the names of your state legislators, go to http://www.capitol.tn.gov.

We would also like to thank all of the groups that stepped up to help educate legislators about this bill: American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP of Nashville, National Organization for Women, Obama for Tennessee Volunteers, and Tennessee Equality Project. We anticipate working with these and other allies in the coming months to get this bill passed in 2010.