So do the A-holes advancing this legislation actually similarly believe that
Therapists who find out that they are counseling someone who has once been divorced should be able to refuse to treat because the counselor is opposed to divorce?
Cant wait to see the legislation that permits dividing lines based upon whether one says the Lord’s Prayer with “trespass” vs “debts” …
Why are these southern states taking half measures? Why don’t they just pass a bill that allows people to shoot anyone that they think might be gay and be done with it?
If all on line porn sites took THIS tact, the laws already enacted would be repealed ASAP …and no further discussion would take place. (⊙.⊙(☉̃ₒ☉)⊙.⊙)
I assume that counselors in Tennessee have to obtain some form of government license to practice.
Yes, this bill stands a great chance of withstanding Constitutional scrutiny.
Or at least an affordable 5 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers!
They are trying to do the same thing with gay rights that they have done to women with our rights. A woman’s constitutional right to privacy in her body has been effectively denied in states all over the country and now they are using the same tactics with LGBT rights and the only way to stop this I think is the SCOTUS.
Tennesseans, the most hateful people in the country.
So… on the one hand they say these people are sick but on the other hand they don’t want them to get treatment.
Agree, but you know that pharmacists can refuse to dispense “morning after pills” or even oral contraceptives. How ridiculous is that?
Not even close, Snookums.
Your hyperbole is not helpful—and it’s utterly false.
What the Teapot/Evangelical/Bigot contingent of the GOP is trying to do with these laws, essentially, is to repeal article 1 of the 14th amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the laws to all citizens, by restricting who is eligible for protection. When this one gets to Federal Court, and certainly when it gets even to our politically slanted Supreme Court, it will be struck down. Here, for reference is the text, and it’s pretty clear:
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States,
and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United
States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of
citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
That may be the law, but if that applied to all areas of LGBT life then there wouldn’t be a need for EDNA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) which still hasn’t passed Congress. There are many areas that the States still play with to discriminate against the LGBT community regardless of the 14th amendment…and still manage to get away with it. Until SCOTUS takes up a challenge regarding the LGBT community as a protected class as a whole, beyond just Marriage Equality, these state laws will continue to be made by the ALEC Bill-mill and passed by those in the states that are determined to discriminate.
well there are black and indian republicons or what there are refered to as the “good ones”
Precisely. Exactamundo.
There is absolutely no need for laws like this. No one seeking counseling should be seeing a counselor who cannot help them. For whatever reason. Any counselor worthy of the name will advise a potential client that s/he cannot be effective as soon as s/he recognizes the fact.
Counselors are human, too. They get to have inadequacies and weaknesses just like the rest of us. The therapeutic relationship is based on trust between the counselor and the counseled. Absent that trust, there can be little therapy. (There is a good reason that counseling is sometimes mocked as buying a best friend an hour at a time, but there is also truth in it.)
These hateful bills in Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana and elsewhere are a symptom and not the cause. The underlying cause is the stranglehold of organized religion on state government. These underlying causes need to be addressed through education, social actions and tax and financial reforms.
Actually, it doesn’t matter – public or private: if they accept Medicare payment and the facility has an emergency department, they are required under EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act of 1986) to accept all comers until the condition is stabilized.
So, as @jinnj notes, the approach private hospitals take is to shut down their emergency departments. With no ER, the EMT part is not operative. Generally speaking, hospitals are not required to have an ER as a condition of licensure.
And after that, they can address “Save us from the time of trial” versus “Lead us not into temptation”.
Bozos, each and all of them.
Anyone know whether therapists take anything like the Hippocratic Oath? Further, don’t most people who enter this profession do so because they want to help people in general? I mean, it’s not like anyone gets rich doing this outside of LA or NYC.
Does anyone know what’s going on in the actual politics of this kind of grandstanding? Are there really that many people in TN, NC, MS etc.obsessing over this stuff?
Or is this some kind of party-internal feedback loop where state legislators are locked in a cycle of mutual display and one-upmanship?
You can count on Mr. Smirk to mouth some words about equality and xtain principals while he signs this. Then he will wonder why we don’t spend our money and tax revenues are down. I’m in the market for a new auto and you can bet not a penny will be spent in states that pass these types of bills. I also live in East TN, my mistake trying to be closer to kids when I retired.