The Letter July 2009

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LETTER

VOLUME 20, ISSUE 7 • JULY 2009

Nashville: NoN-DiscrimiNatioNorDiNaNce effort Gears Up

Reprinted with permission of

Out & About Newspaper

The Tennessee Equality Project has urgedits membership to contact Nashville’sMetro Council members to lobby for anon-discrimination policy that protectsMetro Nashville government employeeson the basis of sexual orientation andgender identity or expression.The group has been preparing andorganizing for more than a year for the battle. It has mobilized several socialnetworking tools and also recruiteddistrict captains to help organize voters inall of the Metro Council districts.

No rm date has been set for the

proposed ordinance but TEP supporters

say they hope it’s led as soon as later

this month. This will mark the secondtime a non-discrimination ordinance has

been proposed in Nashville – the rst

proposal failed on its second reading infront of the 2003 Metro Council, whenthen Vice Mayor Howard Gentry cast atie-breaking vote against the ordinance.It was a move he later apologized forto the GLBT community in his run formayor, saying at a 2007 Nashville GLBTChamber of Commerce Mayoral Forumthat he had come to the realization that heshould have voted differently in 2003.“I’ve been hurt by the response thatI’ve gotten from you and I ask for yourforgiveness for the pain I may havecaused,” Gentry told the crowd of morethan 130 people. “I’ve had hundreds of discussions on this topic. I ask that you

not make that one decision my dening

moment.”The politics behind the move this timecomes on the heels of a similar ordinancethat was proposed in Shelby County,also backed by TEP. Last month, theShelby County Commission passed anon-discrimination resolution that willprohibit discrimination based on “non-merit” factors. Commissioners votednine to four in favor of the resolution.Though not an ordinance, organizers saythe resolution would carry the same legalweight as a county policy.It is anticipated that CouncilwomanMegan Barry will introduce the bill. Barrytold the Nashville City Paper in 2008that she hoped to get such an ordinancepassed within her next term.“At some point over the next term,

we will look to le a resolution that will

protect all our brothers and sisters inMetro,” Barry told the City Paper. “I wantequal protection for all Metro employees because it’s the right thing to do.”Christopher Sanders, chair of TEP, saidthe organization has sent out an e-mail blast to all of its members, asking them tocontact their council members to “let themknow where we stand on this issue.”Sanders said the email and otherevents planned would “rally support in

anticipation of a July ling.”

TEP has more than 600 members of itsFacebook group on the topic, and whileSanders declined to identify the exactnumber of people on TEP’s email list, hesaid it was substantial.”“All Metro employees deserve thesame non-discrimination policy thatNashville’s teachers have,” Sanders said.“Metro ought to be free of discrimination.Let’s put it in writing.”In the e-mail message to supporters,Sanders said “we know from theexperience of working on the ShelbyCounty non-discrimination resolution

that we are in for a ght. Our opponents

brought out the most horrible lies about

With popular entertainer Robbie Bartlett looking on, Mike Shouse, Director of the KentuckianaPride Festival, presents a check to Brad Hampton, Director of the Louisville AIDS Walk. TheFestival collected $5,203 in tips at their beverage stations during the two day event, June 19& 20. Shouse reported that last month’s festival was tremendously successful, noting that aconservative estimate of attendance at the parade and Friday evening event on the Belvedereand at the main festival on Saturday, June 20 was at least 8,000 — an increase of 3,000 over last year’s festival attendance. THE LETTER is proud to be the longest-running media sponsor of the Kentuckiana Pride Festival and the only GLBT news publication to sponsor the 2009festival!

our community. We will have to out-email, out-call, and out-rally them. That’swhy we’re organizing in as many councildistricts as we can. We have alreadyrecruited many district captains for theeffort.”TEP has said passage of such anordinance would make Metro a morecompetitive employer and would send amessage that Nashville is a welcomingcity. He noted that it would cost nothingto make the policy change.“I think maybe most straight people,even those who we would recognize asallies, don't realize it, but we don't haveany employment protections in Tennesseeunless an employer chooses to putsexual orientation and gender identityor expression in its policy,” Sanders said.“We hope Metro government will addthese categories to its non-discriminationpolicy.”If enacted, Metro Nashville would joinAtlanta, Louisville, New Orleans, andChapel Hill as cities that already havesimilar policies. Locally, many businessesalready provide a non-discriminationpolicy for their employees, includingthe area’s largest employer, VanderbiltUniversity and Medical Center, whichhas more than 21,000 employees.

Reprinted with permission of

Out & AboutNewspaper

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