Bill stifling gay marriages can hurt many families
Oftentimes, blind ideology can lead to misery for those who must live with it.
Sen. Mark Pody, R-lebanon, represents a Middle Tennessee district where, in five of its six counties, 20 to 34 percent of its children are poor. In the three-county, east Tennessee district that Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-bean Station, represents, more than 30 percent of its children live in poverty.
Yet staving off child poverty isn’t at the top of Pody and Sexton’s legislative priorities. Stopping same-sex marriages are. Even though trying to do that, in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision upholding such unions, could cause the state to lose billions in federal funds.
Even though that’s money that Tennessee, and the poor children who are part of Pody and Sexton’s constituency, need.
Even though Pody has tried that twice before. And failed.
As a state representative, Pody introduced the Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act in 2015 to block same sex marriage. It didn’t go anywhere. Then, in 2017, he and state Sen. Mae Beavers, R-MT. Juliet, filed the bill again. If it had passed, it would have only recognized marriage between a man and a woman. It also would have denied services to same-sex couples that heterosexual couples enjoy. That bill also didn’t go anywhere. Still, Pody’s constituents saw fit to make him their senator, and now he’s wasting time again working on a bill that could possibly plunge more of their children deeper into poverty.
That’s because the General Assembly’s fiscal review committee found that the Tennessee Natural Marriage Defense Act would result in a $7 billion loss to Tenncare, which insures thousands of poor children.
It would also result in a $2 billion loss from the Department of Human Services, which supports the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, or TANF.
Losing that money will do more to hurt the state’s children and families than two people of the same sex marrying.
Clay County, for example, is one of the six counties that comprise Pody’s district. According to the most recent Tennessee KIDS COUNT data, 33 percent of its children live below poverty level. That number puts it at 93rd in the state when it comes to child well-being, according to the report.
“With a high rate of child poverty and a relatively low median household income, improving outreach to those who may qualify to receive SNAP, WIC and Tenncare benefits to be sure they are aware of these services can help ensure basic needs are met,” the report reads.
The report makes the same recommendation for Claibourne County, which Sexton represents, and which ranks 67th in child well-being.
Yet Pody, who said he wasn’t going “to be bullied by potential threats by the federal government,” seems more than willing to sacrifice the well-being of children on the altar of ideology. And that’s too bad. Of course, Pody lives in Wilson County, which rates 2nd in the state for child well-being and has a child-poverty rate of 10.3 percent. Perhaps that’s blinded him to the struggles of the other counties that comprise his district, not to mention the struggles of counties outside his district.
Such a county would be Shelby County, where 33 percent of children live in poverty and which, at 94th, ranks just below Clay County in child well-being.
But if Pody truly cared about preserving families, he wouldn’t continue to waste energy reintroducing a bill that likely won’t become law, and if it did become law, could potentially make life harder for children in his district.
Especially since lessening the sting of poverty does more to preserve families than laws about who can or can’t marry.
Tonyaa Weathersbee can be reached at tonyaa.weathersbee@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @tonyaajw