That’s funny. Because when I read this:
The legislation … also prohibits the use of state funds … “to promote … the celebration of religious holidays.”
I was like, “that sounds like a war on Christmas to me.”
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I thought it was a close race, and wasn’t able to predict a winner. NC was trying hard to close the gap near the end, winning extra points for rushing legislation through at night, but the bathroom stuff wasn’t original enough.
Your 2016 Champion of Pettiness in Bigotry: T E N N E S S E E
I think it was their constant focus on the matter that carried TN to the top. For example, we have this:
The legislation…prohibits the use of state funds "to promote the use of gender neutral pronouns
Introduced by a lawmaker who says this:
“You are free to do whatever you want to do — say and do and act however you want to,” Gardenhire said, NBC11ALIVE reported. “But we as elected representatives of the people of the state, we feel free to do what we think is necessary to stop this foolishness.”
Awesome! Nothing but neut*, as we say on the court.
*Don’t grammar up in my face about gender in first- and second-person pronouns. The thin amusement value of my comment won’t stand up to a direct hit by a grammarian.
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The legislation demands the impossible, I think, because you can’t use state funds to promote or inhibit celebration of religious holidays. We all know that phrases like “Winter Break” serve to destroy christmas. But, “christmas break” is surely promoting a religious holiday (and, in doing so, inhibiting the many other religious holidays that might happen to fall in or around that time period.)
Below are some holidays for just a tiny sampling of religions (I don’t see the Pastafarian Festival of the Rounding of the Meatballs, for example):
DECEMBER 2015
6 Saint Nicholas Day - Christian
7-14 Hanukkah * - Judaism (begins sundown on 6)
8 Immaculate Conception - Catholic Christian
12 Advent Fast begins- Orthodox Christian
Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe - Catholic Christian
8 Rohatsu (Bodhi Day) ** - Buddhist
16 Posadas Navidenas through 12/25 - Christian
21 Solstice
Yule - Christian
Yule * - Wicca/Pagan northern hemisphere ( begins sundown on 20)
Litha * - Wicca/Pagan southern hemisphere
23 Mawlid an Nabi * - Islam ( begins sundown on 22)
25 Christmas * - Christian
26 Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra ** - Zoroastrian
27 Feast of the Holy Family - Catholic Christian
28 Holy Innocents - Christian
31 Watch Night - Christian
JANUARY 2016
1 Mary, Mother of God - Catholic Christian
Feast Day of St Basil - Orthodox Christian
Gantan-sai (New Years) - Shinto
5 Twelfth Night - Christian
Guru Gobindh Singh birthday - Sikh
6 Epiphany - Christian
Feast of the Epiphany (Theophany) - Orthodox Christian
Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) - Christian
Nativity of Christ - Armenian Orthodox Christian
7 Feast of the Nativity - Orthodox Christian
8 Feast of the Holy Family - Catholic Christian
10 Baptism of the Lord Jesus - Christian
13 Maghi - Sikh
17 Blessing of the Animals - Hispanic Catholic Christian
World Religion Day - Baha’i
18-25 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - Christian
20 Timkat - Ethiopian Orthodox Christian
24-27 Mahayana New Year ** - Buddhist
25 Conversion of St. Paul - Christian
Tu BiShvat - Jewish
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I live in Virginia near the state line with Tennessee so this is all reported on the local news outlets. Yes, the Governor vetoed the Bible official state book designation but they are now trying to get the votes to override his veto. On the Gov’s desk this week is a bill meant to “protect” therapists and counselors from having to provide treatment to certain patients that conflicted with their “deeply held principles”. The first draft of that bill read for “religious beliefs”.
More local than Nashville, over the last few months one of the nearby TN counties has had a very contentious county commissioner debate whether to send a resolution to the state capitol to encourage nullifying any federal mandate to recognize same sex marriage after the Supreme Court’s ruling. They live-streamed 5 hours of citizen comments and I could not believe the hateful and vicious comments that were expressed. I was also pleasantly surprised that many of the people made compassionate statements of tolerance in spite of the ugliness of the whole agenda. In the end the motion did not carry because two of the commissioners were absent (purposely?) and they did not get the required majority. They have vowed to try again at a future date.
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A version of the bill passed the Tennessee House earlier this week that would have funneled $100,000 of the office’s funding to printing “In God We Trust” stickers for law enforcement vehicles.
are you freaking kidding me?!?
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Big waste of money. They can just tape a penny to each vehicle and save 95% of the cost of the free-spending GOP program.
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Setting aside the inherently unconsitutional religious message…
$100,000 for bumper stickers?
What a shining example for fiscal responsibility.
Is $99,000 of that to commission an artist to design the damn things?
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What is it with hate-riddled southerners?
A conservative is someone who regularly wakes up at around 3 am, sweat-drenched from a horrible nightmare in which someone somewhere in the world is having fun.
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With a few margaritas in the right company 
I’d be careful, it appears that Tennessee lawmakers have a lot of free time on their hands so you might have to spend some of your time with a bunch of bigoted repressed self-righteous douchebags… then again, those usually seem to be the most sexually deviant.
Students protested the legislation at the university Tuesday.
Tips to the students, don’t protest on campus, do it in front of the office of Sen. Todd Gardenhire (R-acist).
GOP, the MFMF Party (Money For My Friends. What were you thinking?)
That one is going to bite them on the ass when someone sues because somebody’s office sends out christmas rather than holiday cards, or the governor issues a proclamation mentioning easter and it gets distributed at state expense…
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A conservative is someone who regularly wakes up at around 3 am, sweat-drenched from a horrible nightmare in which someone somewhere in the world is having fun.
…in which someone besides them somewhere in the world is having the wrong kind of sex.
it’s Gawd.
Heaven forbid anyone in Tennessee should learn something. Of course the locals in the legislature follow the “conservative Bible”
Who needs accreditation when you have a footbaw team.
Sadly, no.
I have zero respect for these Republican animals. If you see them in the flesh, spit on them. It’s what they deserve.
These idiots are still trying to outlaw evolution.
If only Lincoln had let the south go…
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That’s the part that got me too. Out and out insane–and exactly, how does one spend 100K on bumper stickers–$5,000 for stickers and $95,000 in services to a political patron? Actually funneling that money to a scholarship fund for minorities is much much better, although I wonder why specifically engineering (I wouldn’t trust them).
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