Chattanooga activists protest state’s ‘natural and ordinary meaning’ law
Protesting a state law they believe attacks LGBTQ rights, a group of about 20 people gathered in the rain at Ross’s Landing on Saturday.
The day before, Gov. Bill Haslam signed HB 1111, a bill that applies “natural and ordinary meaning” to any undefined words in every state law. The bill itself does not explain what constitutes an “undefined word.” But the Tennessee Equality Project, an advocacy group, called it a “sneaky LGBT Erasure Bill.”
“I find the idea of ‘natural and unstrained definition of words’ profoundly obnoxious,” Meredith Stroud, a local activist, told the small Chattanooga crowd at the gathering Saturday. “None of us are speaking Old English right now. Beowulf wouldn’t understand us. Second of all, it presupposes the idea that LGBT people are a recent phenomenon. And we are not.”
In its entirety, HB 1111 reads: “Undefined words shall be given their natural and ordinary meaning, without forced or subtle construction that would limit or extend the meaning of their language, except when a contrary intention is clearly manifest.”
Sponsored by state Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville, the bill passed the House on March 16 by a vote of 70-23. It passed the Senate on April 27, 23-6.
Local state Sens. Mike Bell, Todd Gardenhire and Bo Watson voted for the bill. So did local Reps. Marc Gravitt and Gerald McCormick. Reps. JoAnne Favors and Patsy Hazlewood voted against the bill. Rep. Mike Carter does not appear to have voted, but he said Saturday night he supported the bill.
To him, the bill was legal housekeeping — not an assault on the gay or transgender community.
“It changed absolutely nothing,” Carter said. “It codified Supreme Court law.”
On April 13, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery wrote that the bill could create some confusion. Another section of the state law says that code sections that only explicitly mention masculine pronouns should be read to include feminine and gender-neutral identifiers.
Judges will “likely” apply this established section of the law over the new law, Slatery wrote.
Saturday’s gathering was supposed to show support for the local LGBTQ community, said Samantha Boucher, one of the event’s organizers. It lasted only about 15 minutes, as rain forced them to hold their posters above their heads as flat, paper umbrellas.
Boucher said she wants the protesters to meet in coming weeks, building a strategy for how to approach the Chattanooga City Council. She hopes the local officials can pass an ordinance insulating the state from any confusion created by HB 1111. For example, she believes some local judges in small communities might deny same-sex couples the right to marry — or the right to receive marriage benefits.
Some local church leaders spoke in protest of the bill Saturday.
“I stand with you in calling the writing, passing and signing of HB 1111 an attack on people made in the image of God by people who refuse to accept the wholeness, depth and diversity of God’s good creation,” said the Rev. Brandon Gilvin, of First Christian Church in Chattanooga. “And I say woe to them who confuse bigotry with piety, virtue with violence.”
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.