STATE-SPONSORED TRAVEL TO TN “BANNED” IN AT LEAST 1 STATE FOR ANTI-LGBTQ POLICIES

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Even in a deadly pandemic, the Tennessee legislature is already back to discriminating against anti-LGBTQ people.

Well, it turns out hate doesn’t come without cost.

  

It has come to our attention that because of the anti-LGBTQ policies adopted by Tennessee, which you can read about HERE, certain states have BANNED state-sponsored travel to Tennessee.

Here’s what California’s policy says:

In AB 1887, the California Legislature determined that “California must take action to avoid supporting or financing discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.” (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (a)(5).) To that end, AB 1887 prohibits a state agency, department, board, or commission from requiring any state employees, officers, or members to travel to a state that, after June 26, 2015, has enacted a law that (1) has the effect of voiding or repealing existing state or local protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; (2) authorizes or requires discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression; or (3) creates an exemption to antidiscrimination laws in order to permit discrimination against same-sex couples or their families or on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subds. (b)(1), (2).) In addition, the law prohibits California from approving a request for state-funded or state-sponsored travel to such a state. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (b)(2).)

The travel prohibition applies to state agencies, departments, boards, authorities, and commissions, including an agency, department, board, authority, or commission of the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California, and the California State University. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (b).)

The law also requires the Attorney General to develop, maintain, and post on his Internet Web site a current list of states that are subject to the travel ban. (Gov. Code, § 11139.8, subd. (e).)

Here are the states on the banned travel list:

Tennessee is not the only state banned. And we’re not sure how many other states have TN on the list.

We learned about this because the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) Biennial Conference was supposed to be hosted by the community programs at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but California members altered the hosts that they would not be able to attend.

We’re also told it was the policy to allow discrimination by anti-LGBT psychiatrists which triggered the legislation.

We can’t help but wonder how many other events and how much other revenue our state has lost because of its unwillingness to leave intolerance behind.

As a reminder, Governor Bill Lee, who recently signed the anti-LGBT adoption bill, has a sister who is married to a woman.

COMMENTARY: “DOLLAR GENERAL FIRED ME FOR ORGANIZING ESSENTIAL CO-WORKERS”

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The following is commentary from Daniel Stone, who was recently terminated by Dollar General. 

—

My name is Daniel Stone. On April 27th I was terminated from my role at Dollar General Corporate for organizing essential coworkers.

This termination came after months of efforts to organize & connect with my fellow coworkers in stores, distribution centers and elsewhere.

As the pandemic began to assert itself across all corners of the economy, I focused intently on how my company would act on behalf of my coworkers. Ultimately, as my emails asking about hazard pay, PPE and more for these coworkers were met with generic corporate responses, myself & others began to act.

We have created a movement of Dollar General workers & that will not end with my termination.

The company tried to silence one voice, but in reality, the voices only get louder.

My actions began in March when I sent emails to Kathy Reardon, the Chief People Officer, asking about the CEO’s COVID-19 video that was emailed to all of us. In those emails, I asked about Paid Sick Leave & more for our fellow associates. Her response was ultimately unhelpful to the plights of the workers, but she did mention her gratitude for Employees like me.

I totally feel that gratitude now.

I continued my efforts, emailing Kathy, but she stopped responding. It became clear to me that the Chief People Officer’s concerns did not include the People in office, store and elsewhere.

I shifted my efforts to Human Resources shortly after that, since I figured that maybe I had a better shot of convincing HR to hear my coworkers grievances and perhaps they could then enact change. That was not the case.

In Mid-March, when Corporate dished out bonuses for white-collar workers, including me, and they were in the thousands while our fellow associates in stores were given bonuses of $300, $200 & $100 (before tax!) it became even clearer — This company will do whatever they need to to protect their rich investors while quite literally sending people to contract this virus, all for breadcrumbs.

One of my emails was to Nichole Wheeler, HR Manager, in which I asked her if Corporate Employees could work in stores on weekends. As I had gone in stores to get groceries for my own household, I had spoken to coworkers about the concerns they shared and decided to ask HR about this possibility.

HR shot that idea down and this was a turning point for me.

Dollar General was comfortable sending workers across the chain in for work everyday during a pandemic, with degrading wages & little to no protection against the virus, but we as corporate workers were not allowed to show solidarity with our coworkers?

It’s shameful.

After other correspondences with Nichole it became evident that the company was not interested in engaging with me & my coworkers. Stories of workers being unable to feed their children, pregnant women scared to work during this virus, hours being cut despite a temporary, laughable, one-dollar raise for Part-Time workers and so many more.

These stories are what led me to engage in protected concerted activity with my coworkers & the support of UFCW 655 in Missouri.

Workers are tired of asking companies for their empathy, now, we demand fairness.

On ~4/13/20, Corporate Employees who were still working in the building, few of which were in mine, could have access to 5 wired masks a week. On ~4/20/20, multiple workers had confirmed that Dollar General was sending them literal t-shirt cutouts as masks.

Across Georgia, Arkansas, Pennsylvania & elsewhere my coworkers were being subjected to this virus, with low pay as it is, and now they’ve been sent T-Shirts to protect themselves and their families? This was insulting, not to mention completely ineffective.

A company making billions in profits, that could afford to pay their executive team nearly $24 million dollar in total compensation in 2019 couldn’t even give workers on the ground the basic respect of a mask.

Eventually, my efforts came to a head on 4/27/20 when I was terminated for what the company cited was bad blood towards the company as well as negative emails.

I’m still not sure how asking about hazard pay, PPE & whether or not corporate workers, who are coworkers with people in stores, can go in in our free time to help, is negative  – but that’s for their conscience to debate, not mine.

Myself & others inside that building know the treatment that our fellow associates are experiencing and for that we organized. At the time of writing this, across all platforms, we have recruited 300+ DG employees to join this movement. From March to my termination in April we reached out to numerous people with the same message of organizing to force Dollar General to recognize our plights.

When one of us is unable to feed our child, we speak up.

When one of us is seeing their hourly wage go from $7.25 to $8.25 but their hours go from 30 to 12, we speak up.

I am hurt to be away from my team at Dollar General, and hope they’re doing well, but myself & others could not sit by while fellow associates are being abused and their bodies being crushed to dust for the good of a company that would replace them tomorrow if they could save a penny.

Workers are tired of asking companies for their empathy. Now, we demand fairness.

In closing, I want to request that if you have spare funds during this pandemic that you give something to a Workers Rights advocacy group, a Union, anything that you feel can advance the cause of Workers Rights. In this country, corporations rely on campaign financing as well as a general Anti-Worker sentiment that we have to change.

Additionally, I want to give a quick shoutout to a few people who have taught me how to organize, how to know what my/others rights are as a worker, and who gave me personally the courage to keep going:

Billy Myers — Organizing Director, UFCW 655

Ashley Bachelder — Interim Co-Director, Workers Dignity/Dignidad Obrera

Vonda McDaniel — President, CLC Nashville Lori — DG Associate/Coworker

Judd Legum — Popular Info

All Coworkers and Associates of Dollar General who continue fighting for the respect, protection & wages they deserve.

Please contact me at [email protected] or DM me on Twitter for any questions.

Thank you for reading.

 

SEC. TRE HARGETT HIT WITH 2ND VOTE-BY-MAIL-FOR-ALL LAWSUIT

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Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is already being sued by the NAACP & The Equity Alliance, groups seeking safer voting-by-mail for all during a pandemic.

Currently Tennessee only allows those over 60 and people who meet certain requirements to vote absentee.

Now Hargett has been hit with ANOTHER lawsuit at the state level, this time by a bipartisan group of voters, including a pastor.

You can read the lawsuit from Hunter Demster, Earle J. Fisher, Julia Hiltonsmith, Allison Donald, Ginger Bullard, and Jeff Bullard HERE.

Under “Nature of The Suit” it reads:

“Plaintiffs contend that, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis and the uncertain but growing population distribution of the novel coronavirus (the “Virus”), restricting Tennesseans’ vote-by-mail access to voters over sixty years of age, or who otherwise meet one of the other absentee- ballot qualifications enumerated under Tenn. Code Ann. § 2-6-201, would impose impermissibly burdensome conditions on the Individual Plaintiffs and others’ right to vote under the Tennessee Constitution.

Furthermore, enforcing these restrictions during the pandemic would constitute one or more unlawful classifications of Tennesseans, violating of the Equal Protection Clause of the Tennessee Constitution. In the alternative, Plaintiffs contend that the only constitutionally compliant construction of certain Tennessee statutory language allows for a Tennessee-licensed physician to certify the entire population of a county “medically unable to vote” because of the danger posed by the pandemic.

Plaintiffs’ claims sound strictly under Tennessee state law. They assert no claims arising under or substantially related to federal law.

Tennessee is at the bottom in voter turnout. Hargett was recently torched by a federal judge for his voter registration criminalization bill.

This all reeks of calculated voter suppression. Holler at Hargett to let him know we need vote-by-mail for all:

INTERVIEW: SENATOR BRENDA GILMORE

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Senator Brenda Gilmore joins us to discuss the racial disparities when it comes to the virus, and health care in general.

“All of us as Americans should be ashamed we’ve neglected our communities for so long.”

The Case Against Rep. John Deberry Jr.

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For a long time Tennessee Democrats have been calling for Rep. John Deberry Jr. to have the “D” next to his name removed for consistently siding with Republicans against them on many key issues. This week the Tennessee Democratic Party Executive Committee finally took that action and voted 41-18 with 2 abstentions to do just that.

Many have expressed relief, saying Deberry’s longtime support for the Tennessee Republican agenda has warranted removal for some time. Some have expressed skepticism, saying it should be up to the voters to decide.

Republicans such as Speaker Cameron Sexton have seized on the opportunity to attack Democrats, saying this shows they’re inflexible in their beliefs and calling out TNDP chair Mary Mancini on Twitter.

It’s no surprise Republicans would rush to Deberry’s defense. They’ve regularly expressed gratitude to Deberry for standing with them on their anti-LGBT legislation, their anti-Reproductive rights bills, Governor Bill Lee’s public school-harming vouchers, and Secretary Tre Hargett’s voter registration criminalization bill to name a few.

They’ve even run ads in support of him. (“You tha man”, guys? Really?)

There are so many instances of Deberry standing with Republicans against progressive ideals that it’s hard to keep track – but that’s what we’re here for. Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

On Lee’s public school-harming vouchers, Deberry was the lone Democrat to vote for the bill, which passed 50-48 after a 49-49 tie was held open for 35 minutes while disgraced former speaker Glen Casada (and likely Governor Lee) handed out goodies to convince people to switch, including MILITARY PROMOTIONS.

Eventually, Rep. Jason Zachary flipped, the public school-harming vouchers passed, and the rollout has already been a lie and bribe-filled nightmare, causing even those who voted for it to regret it.

(Of course, that hasn’t stopped Lee from including $41 million for it in the “emergency budget”.)

On Reproductive freedom, Deberry has stood with Republicans repeatedly – even when their bills were unconstitutional, and even when they would force raped teenagers to carry their rapist’s baby to term. Deberry even went so far as to call abortion “BLACK GENOCIDE”, a phrase that will be hard to forget anytime soon.

Even on something as obviously oppressive as Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s voter registration criminalization bill, Deberry couldn’t bring himself to stand on the right side of history. He abstained, a decision which was promptly shown to be cowardly and wrongheaded when a federal judge blocked the law and ripped it apart in a scathing decision.

We spoke with Deberry at length after the fact, and he didn’t seem to understand what the law even did. Which is no excuse.

Then there are Deberry’s anti-LGBT beliefs, which have caused leading voices from the Tennessee LGBT community to speak out forcefully.

Eric Patton of the Human Rights campaign wrote to the TNDP committee before the vote, saying Deberry “consistently stood against women’s rights and LGBTQ rights”, “sponsored a bill to discriminate against LGBTQ youth and adults in matters of mental health”, and “verbally supported conversion therapy”.

Patton concluded:

“As a LGBTQ community leader, it is a clear decision to deny him the party’s support in his re-election. I strongly urge you to take appropriate action to deny his petition.
You have a say, as a party leader, who is allowed to run as a member. DeBerry has displayed time and time again that he has no regard for the party or its platform, let alone the marginalized people it stands to protect.
He shouldn’t get the help of the party. If he’s going to stand against the marginalized, he shouldn’t be standing with us.”

Republicans have been quick to knock Democrats for taking this action, but before you put any faith in the outcry, it’s important to keep in mind Republicans have done things like this before. Speaker Kent Williams was an incumbent removed by the state party. They’ve also kicked people off of ballots for not having the proper “Republican bona fides”.

(Meanwhile They’ve let admitted child sex abuser Rep. David Byrd stay in office, as well as Speaker Casada – who lied and who covered for his “N word”-using coke-snorting chief of staff, said ugly things about women, and may have framed a civil rights activist, and was removed as speaker for it… but those are stories for a different day).

Reproductive freedoms, voting rights, LGBT rights, public schools… these are not minor issues Deberry was standing with Republicans on. And as Mary Mancini said, the majority of Deberry’s campaign donations come from Republican PACs/groups/ individuals. He has a history of making large donations to Republican candidates.

The parties have the right to do these things for a reason. Deberry’s allegiance to the Republican agenda has been a useful political tool for Republicans for long enough.

YARBRO: “I think we should make sure we’re actually adjusting to the emergency at hand.”

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Senator Jeff Yarbro calls for NO-EXCUSE ABSENTEE BALLOTS to let ALL Tennesseans vote by mail ??, rather than Sen. Gardenhire’s (clearly dangerous) bill to bring EVEN MORE PEOPLE TOGETHER.

VIDEO: “Nathan Bedford Forrest Day Should Be Removed”

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Rep. London Lamar’s bill would remove KKK GRAND WIZARD DAY in Tennessee.

Rep. Andy Holt (“We’ve all done things we wish we hadn’t”) and Rep. Mike Sparks (“atrocities on both sides”) push back.

Governor Lee has said he won’t reaffirm it.

CASADA: “I Strongly Oppose A Living Wage”

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Disgraced ex-Speaker Glen Casada opposes a Rep. Jason Hodges bill that requires companies getting incentives to come to TN to pay their employees fair wages.

RELATED: TN leads Flag of United States in min. wage jobs, inequality is at record levels.

PUTNAM CO. LIBRARY: Holt’s Witness’ Drag Queen Story Hour “Genitalia Exposure” Story Didn’t Happen

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Rep. Andy Holt (R-Dresden) has a bill being carried by Paul Bailey (R-Sparta) in the Senate that seeks to impose censorship on libraries by forming parental boards which would be able to decide what can and can’t be in them.

The Tennessee Library Association opposes the bill, saying libraries already have local control, and pointing out discrimination would open the libraries up to lawsuits.

Holt & co. say it isn’t about discrimination, it’s about protecting kids – but witnesses that spoke in support of the bill are openly anti-LGBT, tweeting proudly about that designation on multiple occasions.

Both witnesses who supported Holt’s bill were self-described preachers who spoke of an incident at the Putnam County Library where a Drag Queen “exposed their genitalia” to a child.

We’ve seen no reports of any such incident, or anyone being arrested for doing this – which is obviously ALREADY A CRIME – so we called the library to ask about it. Here’s that conversation:

HOLLER: You had Drag Queen Story Hour at the Putnam County Library, and witnesses at a hearing this week say somebody exposed themselves to a child. Did that happen?

PUTNAM LIBRARY: “No. Well – one can never prove a negative, right? I can’t flat-out say it didn’t happen. But ONE: No library staff witnessed that happening. TWO: It was never ever reported to any staff. THREE: We had police on the scene during certain parts of that day. Nobody ever filed a police report. Nobody ever notified the police that this happened. So we assume it didn’t happen.”

HOLLER: They say they have a picture of it. Have they ever brought that to you? Or the police?

PUTNAM LIBRARY: “Not that I’m aware of. They never brought it to me. I’m pretty sure they never brought it to the police. Because I imagine they would’ve had a police report, and they would’ve come investigated that.”

He also went on to tell us they had an LGBT display with books during Pride Week, but they were age appropriate, not pornographic in any way, and they ended up removing it when enough locals asked them to.

We also checked in with a spokesperson from the Drag Queen story hour situation, who told us:

“Rich Penkoski is a street preacher who does online videos. His group, Warriors for Christ, is a hate group per SPLC. He has a photo of a supporter in drag squatted down talking to a child outside Putnam Co Library that he has blurred to look like it’s obscene.

These are the facts: He has never been inside one of our events. Our Facebook page has videos of our readings. We haven’t used a public library since Jan 2019 because the crowds are too big for the library. We’ve been using private venues since March 2019. All of our volunteers have to pass a background check.”

BOTTOM LINE: Penkoski and Pastor James Fortunato are claiming someone exposed themselves to a child – which is already a crime – but did nothing about it? And they’re question the morality of others?

This bill is quite obviously about censorship and discrimination. Call your reps.

 

UPDATE — Penkoski reached out to us about the incident, and maintains it did happen, saying:

The library staff is lying. We absolutely did tell them about the man exposing himself. I have an email that I sent to them and the board with the photos. You also never mentioned the librarian who called for violence against me and solicited help from a group in Louisiana who made local news for issuing death threats against me.

UPDATE 2 — Penkoski has sent us the pictures in question. There does not appear to be any genitalia, only exposed underwear – and would seem to make sense that the library took no action.

The parents were right there. They claim the bill is about parental control, yet are making a big deal about something the parents don’t seem to have pursued.

Also, here they are wondering why the police and the news are being unresponsive.

VIDEO: Rep. Andy Holt & The TN GOP’s ANTI-LGBT LIBRARY CENSORSHIP Bill

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Backed by hostile anti-LGBT witnesses, Rep. Andy Holt openly advocates library “CENSORSHIP” as he pushes a bill targeting LGBT events at libraries — a bill the Tennessee Library Association says would inevitably lead to lawsuits.

Here’s a little of what one of the witnesses tweeted recently… proudly anti-LGBT:

WATCH: