TN Governor: Banning Anti-Discrimination Laws

Governor Bill Haslam signed into a law today a piece of legislation preventing Nashville from protecting LGBT employees from discrimination in the workplace.

The law addresses a city resolution that stated any company discriminating against gays and lesbians would not be able to get a contract working for Nashville.  Naturally, this is an affront to corporate America's God-given right to fire anyone they want on the basis of sexual orientation!  So the good legislators of Tennessee passed a law stating that no non-discrimination law can be stricter than the laws on the books at the state level.

This nasty pitcher of haterade was supported via lobbying efforts by the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce, of which quite a few big companies are a member, to include FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare.

These companies appear to have felt the heat from an AmericaBLOG-driven campaign aimed at eroding support for the bill, as the Chamber of Commerce has now withdrawn their support for it and released the following statement:

“The Tennessee Chamber supports a standard regulatory environment at the state level as opposed to potentially conflicting local regulations covering employment practices. That principle was the only interest the Chamber had in this bill. Because HB600/SB632 has turned into a debate on diversity and inclusiveness—principles which we support—we are now officially opposing this legislation in its present form.

"Adopted unanimously May 23, 2011

"DEB WOOLLEY, PRESIDENT
TENNESSEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY"

Too late, guys.  The bill has been signed, and now business is back to usual in the state of Tennessee... Want to fire someone because they're gay?  No problem!

[WSMV]