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
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.
Will the bible be in the adult section? It’s full of every kind of smut and crime you can think of.
it should be at the top of the ‘banned’ list for content.
Nah, it just needs to be in fiction where it and the quran belong.
At least until people stop treating it like truth and start treating it strictly anthropologically. It’s a fascinating book to analyze secularly.
It’s a fascinating book to analyze secularly.
Is it though? I’ve seen atheists say this to theists to make them feel like they got some kind of win or something.
But let’s be real, it’s shit. The stories are shit. The characters are shit. It isn’t even internally consistent. It’s an objectively shitty book.
No, it’s fascinating to ANALYZE secularly, not to read secularly. It’s fascinaing anthropologically. It is NOT good literature.
I’m not going to call cave paintings high art, but they are fascinating to study for some.
The Song of Solomon was deadass my first exposure to erotic writing
“And their emissions were kin to that of donkeys” or some shit
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Violence is already banned by law, we should ban all the books about that too, right?
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after the all, the city is only banning the distribution of these materials to minors
And kicking anyone who shows affection to their same-gender partner in public out of the city. You left that part out for some reason.
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I see, so as long as it isn’t limited to homosexuality, it doesn’t say that gay people will get kicked out of town if they kiss each other in public. Gotcha.
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So if a man and woman are holding hands, they’ll get the same punishment? Somehow I don’t think this backwater town will enforce the laws equally since they have such a dumb ordinance to begin with.
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Ezekiel 23:20
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
Looks like smut that should be kept out of the hands of children to me.
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What’s your point? Does putting smut in context make it any less smutty and appropriate for children? It’s okay for children to hear about men blasting out semen with their giant dicks if it’s in the proper context?
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If I had a book that showed graphic pictures of people having sex with “do not do this, children” at the bottom, would that be appropriate for children?
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How about a third option: one that mentions it at all. Isn’t that what this is all about after all?
According to Republicans, this is about not exposing children to things like that. You can’t change the criteria for this one book, especially when that book is a religious holy book. That would violate the First Amendment by creating laws that specifically and overtly target anything based on religion.
Additionally, it’s fucking stupid.
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yes, that’s the point of the whole book.
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God-ordained genocide
Why would you worship a genocidal maniac?
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Oh man, I wish I still lived in Murfreesboro. I’m straight as could be but you better believe I’d find a buddy to kiss and hug in public just to piss off those backwards fuckwits.
Family member of the same gender? Time to hold hands everywhere we go…
Could make Murfreesboro the gayest town in America!
Ah yes, America, the land of freedom and of the free!
Freedom to be free from people you dislike, it seems…
Except that this is just one city.
If Quebec City bans books, would you say “Ah yes, Canada”?
What about the American cities that do encourage freedom? Are they to be dismissed?
The fact that the country can’t effectively stop or prevent this, and half the people in charge along with their voters allow/agree with this stuff happening regularly, does make it a national problem. Injustice anywhere is representative of the whole nation. If your society is so weak that it can’t even start to try to put an end to a few fascists imposing their power on its own citizens without months of political arguing between a bunch of shitty corrupt rich old people, then the argument “it’s just one city!” falls apart. It just means this could potentially happen anywhere, like it is (in progress) in Florida right now.
This shouldn’t be a common thing that’s happening in the first place. The fact that it is taints the entire country. We have the resources to effectively prevent, and when needed, crack down hard on far-right authoritarian bs, but the leaders are too busy arguing about if education is actually a good thing, or if we really need healthcare, or that putting poison in food is actually an expression of freedom by companies, while being paid millions by oil/auto/banking/etc. corporations to do so.
Fair points.
Your solution to minor local authoritarianism is a massive exercise of authoritarianism.
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So yall are fascists too. Wonderful. Nevermind the usual slow court based methods of ending these sorts of things kinda makes sure the people you do agree with, don’t also get beat down.
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Right. So, you’re advocating fascism again.
This is like when someone says “not all men” when someone’s discussing women’s issues with certain men, or saying “all lives matter” when discussing racism faced by black people in America… Yeah, we know there are good cities, this bad city that’s being discussed also happens to be American, and emblematic of the overall problems with American society. And as an American, I’m deeply concerned with the idea we should allow any city, no matter how small, to practice in discrimination. Definitely worth more than a brush-off.
Thank you. Fair points.
if you tolerate this, then your children will be next
Good thing I don’t have children, precisely, because I knew the future was going to become even shittier, but good point.
What even is your angle here? Are you like a super patriotic progressive that hates when people make generalizations about the US based on dumb fucks in TN?
So curious what this was all about lol
No angle. All joy.
How can anyone be this fragile omg
lol wut? Dissenting opinions equal fragility? What are you a U.S. republican?
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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.
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That clears it right up.
How the fuck do you bar someone from a town in the United States? Are they going to build checkpoints?
It’s happened before. See: sundown towns in Jim Crow south.
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Highly unlikely to happen in Murfreesboro; it’s got a population of over 157k (as of 2021). Living just outside Murfreesboro, I’m interested to see if this is actually enforced. I can’t imagine it would go over well if attempted. Either way, it’s infuriating.
Highly unlikely to happen in Murfreesboro
I bet a couple years ago you’d have said the same thing about the topic of the original post…
Being in the south, not so much. Still, there are limits to today’s intolerance in more populous areas.
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.
Sounds like it’s not a local border situation, probably more to do with city permits. Insane in 2023. Reminds me of the vagrancy laws.
no, the town will just quit investigating the murders until the undesirables get the message
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me when I crank the no true scotsman to 11
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Yeah that tracks.
That place sucks, and so does MTSU.
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Of course this would be how my town makes the news…
I hope you get to leave.
The only thing I knew y’all for before is that Strong Bad liked the sound of your town’s name
I just want to say that those are some bitchin book titles. Now I want to read them.
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They won’t… But the organizers should move the festival to a different state out of protest.
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Manchester, TN
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There is a reason Red Dead Redemption 2 has a clan of inbred folks called the Murfree brood.
I’m sure it’s one of those things where a woman in a string bikini would be fine, but a guy in pink silver hot pants and a rainbow mesh shirt isn’t.
Do people in those states just have nothing better to do? Like get a hobby and stop thinking about other people’s sex lives.
Shithole states. Keep NOLA and the Mississippi River, and go General Sherman on the rest. They cost more than they bring in anyway.
No more PDA
Time for guerrilla handholding in the hills
We all use smartphones now.
What the fuck, man?!
They get elected, and then expect the taxpayers to subsidize laws they know are unconstitutional. Leftists give money to lawyers and then have less to contribute to elections.
