Republican lawmakers in the US are leaning into outdated definitions of obscenity to outlaw drag and ban books too
For five months this year, homosexuality was prohibited in a Tennessee college town.
In June, the city council of Murfreesboro enacted an ordinance outlawing “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct”. The rule did not explicitly mention homosexuality, but LGBTQ+ people in the town quickly realized that the ordinance references 21-72 of the city code, which categorizes homosexuality as an act of indecent sexual conduct.
The ordinance was essentially a covert ban on LGBTQ+ existence.
Erin Reed, one of the first and only national journalists to cover the ordinance earlier this year, noted that Murfreesboro isn’t “the only community that has these old archaic bits of code that target homosexuality”.
Earlier this month, following a legal challenge from the ACLU of Tennessee, the government of Murfreesboro removed “homosexuality” from the list of acts defined as “public indecency” by the city code. The small victory came after officials repeatedly refused to issue permits for the BoroPride Festival, citing the new ordinance.
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Sure, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. Your suggestion is to leave family, friends, work, etc etc. Lots of people are tied to a location based on circumstances they can’t control.
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Sure, I’ve uprooted plenty. Some people have circumstances… Like a dependent parent or dependence on a job for insurance. Being human is hard for plenty of people without all the added shit.
Absolutely, so you can take your own advice and go live with the rest of the bigots.
God I would fucking love to move out of my hell-hole conservative state. You going to contribute to my go fund me? Got a room for negligible rent?
I feel you, I really do, but I’m getting old and out of options.
I own a home in NW Florida, and there’s no way I move without seriously fucking myself up. FFS, my mortgage is $600/mo. and interest/tax free. I might even have it paid off in the next 5 years. (Thanks Habitat for Humanity! AMA. Seriously folks. I’ll help if I can.)
I might retire to the Philippines with my new Filipina wife (married last Friday!), and that has its pros and cons. Of course I could rent my house out, which lemmy says makes me an evil son-of-a bitch landlord.
And one could say, “You should have left long ago!” Well… Just got here 18-years ago and Florida was purple then, we voted for Obama twice, and it’s only leaning red ATM. And again, lemmy tells me I’m a son-of-a-bitch for living here because my governor and congressman are asses.
So… what? I just run away and destroy my family’s life because the last couple elections went sour?