The Tennessee House passed, on Monday, February 26, a bill that would largely ban the display of LGBTQ rainbow flags in public school classrooms. The vote was 70-24, with the red state’s House being dominated by the GOP. The bill has now been sent to the Senate, which is also controlled by Republicans, and if it passes there, it will head to the governor’s desk.
The bill would allow only certain flags to be displayed, with some small exceptions. The approved flags are the United States flag, the Tennessee flag, those flas that state law considers protect historical items, some Native American tribe flags, flags for the armed forces and Prisoners of War-Missing in Action (POW-MIA), local county and government flags, and flags for colleges, universities, and the school themselves.
That would, therefore, exclude most political flags, including the Black Lives Matter flag and rainbow LGBTQ flag, which many on the right argue are inappropriate to include in the classroom. The bill only allows the display of such other flags for learning during a “bona fide” course curriculum, or when groups are allowed to use school buildings.
For the purposes of the bill, “displaying” a flag means a school or school employee placing, exhibiting, or otherwise raising the flag, or a picture of it, “anywhere students may see the object.” That thus includes not just flagpoles or in gymnasiums, but also in classrooms, and likely on everything from emails to students to PowerPoint displays.
The decision to pass the bill, as could be expected, came after an extremely heated debate in the House. During the debate, which was cut short by House Republicans, Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, started screaming that the House Speaker was out of order. Republicans voted to consider Rep. Jones out of order, thus silencing him.
After the vote, one furious Democrat, Rep. Jason Powell, said, “I am proud when I walk into the public schools in my city, to see the LGBTQ flag in the classrooms, proudly put up by teachers who understand the suffering that many of their students go through.” Rep. Powell continued, “We should be welcoming and celebrating our students, not hating on them.”
Rep. Gino Buso, defending the bill and describing why it is important, said, “What we’re doing is making sure parents are the ones who are allowed to instill in their children the values they want to instill.” He added that the exceptions would likely include things like Confederate flags that are necessary for a history lesson or similar flag and curriculum, not for political displays.
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For enforcement, the bill relies on parents or guardians of kids at the schools, or who are eligible to attend them. to sue if they find a teacher or other school employee or agent has impermissibly banned one of the proscribed flags. It remains to be seen if the state Senate will pass the bill, or act as a moderating influence and hold it up.