Posts

TN DEMS VOW TO STAND UP TO DRACONIAN REPUBLICAN ABORTION BAN

This week Tennessee Dems held a press conference vowing to push back on the Republican abortion ban, and the brutality it entails. Below are some clips.

 

WATCH: “IT’S LEGISLATIVE VIOLENCE—women are not equal if we don’t have control over our own health decisions.” At a presser on the TN GOP extreme abortion ban Rep. Gloria Johnson says more women will die, Tennessee’s economy will get hurt as events & businesses choose other states.

TN-5 CANDIDATE SENATOR HEIDI CAMPBELL: “We’re here with you… we’re not backing down. Our Tennessee daughters deserve to grow up with the same rights & freedoms as our sons.”🎯 #BansOffOurBodies – TN Dems vowed to carry bills pushing back on the draconian, violent abortion ban.

SEN. LAMAR: “I’m devastated. I’m angry. It’s an ABOMINATION —- they never take a stand on ‘life’ outside the womb.” Senator London Lamar says the extremist TN GOP abortion ban will force rape & trafficking victims to carry to term, and Black women will be impacted most. #BansOffOurBodies

SEN. YARBRO TO TENNESSEE: “It’s time to WAKE UP.”🔥 – Yarbro rightly says TN is 1 of the most dangerous places in the developed world to get pregnant because of a brutal TN GOP supermajority, calls out Jack Johnson for minimizing rape pregnancies. (especially for young girls)

REP. CLEMMONS: “Make no mistake, they’re not going to stop here.” – John Ray Clemmons says the TN GOP will keep taking away rights until voters stand up to them, calls on men to stop hiding behind party and stick up for their families, thanks his female colleagues for their leadership.

YES, THEY WANT TO FORCE LITTLE GIRLS TO CARRY BABIES: Jim Bopp of National Right to Life – who has been to Tennessee to testify for Republicans – says YES, THE 10 YEAR OLD RAPE VICTIM SHOULD HAVE BEEN FORCED TO GIVE BIRTH. Monstrous.

PSA…

RALLIES ACROSS TENNESSEE #BansOffOurBodies

This weekend Tennesseans all over marched in support of women’s rights. It was a beautiful sight to see.

Here were some of the best moments and signs we saw.

LIVE: BUSTING REPUBLICAN ABORTION MYTHS (with Francie Hunt)

Francie Hunt of TN Advocates Planned Parenthood joined us to walk through a Republican talking points memo on abortion and set some things straight.

PODCAST HERE.

INTERVIEW: ASHLEY PEREIRA (survivor of “Alabama pastor who raped teen gets probation” story)

ASHLEY PEREIRA was raped by ex-Jason Greathouse in Alabama at 14, and her parents pushed her to marry him. They are now divorced. He just was let off with no jail time. They both now live in Tennessee (him in HENDERSONVILLE) and she’s forced to share custody of their child with him, while he doesn’t pay any child support.

PODCAST. FULL EPISODE.

Tennessee Can Do Better for Women

Adrienne Pakis-Gillon knows about women in politics, from the passage of the 19th amendment to her disappointment with the representation of women in our GOP majority legislature. Ladies, can’t we do better for women and children in Tennessee?

FULL PODCAST available on Apple Podcasts here, and wherever else you like to listen here.

The Case Against Rep. John Deberry Jr.

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.

VIDEO: Senator Janice Bowling Vs. Early Childhood Education

TN GOP Senator Janice Bowling says TN should encourage moms to stay home as she did rather than use federal ? to help TN families with child care.

Her message: “Parenting is not a part-time job” and ““Early Childhood Education is NOT in the best interest of the Child.” ?

Worth noting: Bowling represents the POOREST county in TN – Grundy County – yet resists helping families with daycare costs using FEDERAL ? because she believes moms should stay home and early childhood education is bad (which study after study shows it is NOT).‬ Early Childhood Education is a good thing.

Bowling clearly has no idea what it’s like to be poor in Tennessee, where we lead the nation in minimum wage jobs (because her party won’t raise it), are at the bottom in poverty, ‬#1 medical bankruptcies, etc.

People work 2 jobs and still barely get by, yet Bowling sits in judgment of them and resists helping with federal funds that are there for exactly that reason?

This is the mentality that caused us to have a $732 TANF reserve, the biggest in the country, and lose hundreds of millions in child care funds which reverted back to the federal government.

Holler at her HERE.

VIDEO: REP. CURCIO STALLS FOR BYRD

VIDEO: PROTECTING PREGNANT WORKERS

1 of 9 TN babies are born pre-term. Our Infant mortality is that of a 3rd world country. Most pregnant/new moms work. Tamara Currin of March of Dimes and Elizebeth Gedmark told the TN SENATE this week we need A PREGNANT WORKERS ACT – as 27 states have – to help moms in the workplace.

 

VIDEO: GOVERNOR LEE’S EXTREME ABORTION BILL

Watch Lee & announce his “comprehensive pro-life legislation” – despite bumbling on details.

TN Dems call it “extreme & divisive”, “unconstitutional”, say it does nothing to help TN’s health care crisis.

It will lead to costly lawsuits. TN’s maternal mortality rate is 3rd world, yet Lee refuses $1 BILLION/year in Medicaid expansion funds. That isn’t pro-life.