Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is already beginning to implement the law.
A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.
Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.
Anyone who violates the new ordinance is barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at public events for two years. Anyone who violates the ordinance “in the presence of minors” is barred for five years.
An ACLU-backed challenge to the ordinance has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped city officials from implementing the measure. Last Monday, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss removing all books that might potentially violate the ordinance from the public library. The resolution was met with widespread outcry from city residents.
“When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert demanded during the Monday county meeting.
Murfreesboro city officials have already used the ordinance to ban four books that discuss LGBTQ themes. In August, the county library board pulled the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.
The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups. When it takes effect next year, children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books.
Library director Rita Shacklett worried in August that the new rules would prevent students from accessing books they need for a class. She explained that many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, are now classified as “adult.”
It’s unclear if the county steering committee plans to pull books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which includes multiple depictions of heterosexual sexual conduct.
Murfreesboro’s new ordinance is part of a much larger wave of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and the rest of the country. In the past year, the so-called Volunteer State became the first state to try to ban drag performances. That law was overturned in court.
In March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it, essentially gutting marriage equality. The bill was introduced in the Senate but deferred until next year.
link: https://newrepublic.com/post/176915/tennessee-town-ban-public-homosexuality
archive link: https://archive.ph/LFMMK
Of course this would be how my town makes the news…
Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.
The section that defines sexual conduct is 21-71, not 21-72:
Section 21-71 - Definitions.
As used in this article:
…
“Sexual conduct” means acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or, if such person be a female, breast.
It looks to me that 21-71 was adopted in 1977, but I am not sure.
I’m so confused how any of these laws mentioned are applied to books, they don’t seem to have anything to do with reading.
The New Republic article isn’t very good in my opinion.
You might read through this: https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/city-ordinance-banning-public-homosexuality
The new ordinance: https://www.wkrn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/73/2023/06/061523-Community-Decency.pdf
C. Prohibited conduct.
(1) No person shall knowingly while in a public space engage in indecent
behavior, display, distribute, or broadcast indecent material, conduct
indecent events, or facilitate any of the foregoing prohibited acts, or
otherwise subject minors to a prurient interest or to behaviors,
materials, or events that are patently offensive to prevailing
standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is
suitable material for minors.
(2) No funds appropriated by City Council shall be knowingly: (a) used to
facilitate indecent behavior, the display, distribution, or broadcast of
indecent materials, or the conducting of indecent events; or (b) used to
expose or subject minors in any other manner to behavior, materials,
or events that predominantly appeals to the prurient interest of
minors and that is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the
adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material
for minors.
(3) The prohibition on the use of City funds in subsection (2) does not
apply: (a) to the identification, removal, and disposal of materials that
violate subsection (2); or (b) to materials, performances, or exhibitions
that, when taken as a whole, expresses matters of serious literary,
artistic, scientific, or political value.
I just want to say that those are some bitchin book titles. Now I want to read them.
The lesson here is that Murfreesboro hates America, despises freedom, shits on the soldiers who gave their lives for this country and pisses all over their graves. They have wiped their asses with the American flag and flushed it into the sewer. They are traitors of the highest order and should be treated as such.
Death to Amerikkka.
