IT WASN'T A TYPICAL DAY-JULY 1, 2023, was the day Ordinance 23-0-22, better known as the "Decency Ordinance," was set to go into effect in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
It gave Police Chief Michael Bowen and City Manager Craig Tindall the power to penalize anyone, anywhere in public, for anything they deemed indecent. No two men should have this much power.
When questioned on what would qualify as indecent during public discussions before Murfreesboro City Council voted to pass the ordinance, the response was: I can tell you when I see it.
I believe that this was an absurd and dangerous attempt to criminalize being LGBTQ+ in our town, a discriminatory effort that coincided with a similar attempt to erase Murfreesboro's LGBTQ+ citizens and their stories at the Rutherford County Library System (RCLS).
Fortunately, with the bad came some good-a community ready to defend and protect everyone's rights to be themselves and be welcome.
Rutherford County Library Alliance (RCLA) Facebook group.
I became an active member and now serve as vice president. We started preparing to appear at the August 28 library board meeting where the board of directors would decide the fate of six books one library patron had challenged.
It was standing room only. What I witnessed that day was disturbing: Board members laughing as they were unable to correctly say "LGBTQ+, cherry-picking sentences from some of the targeted books, and taking them out of context.
They also showed a lack of understanding of how the Miller test works, the longstanding historic legal test for determining whether expression constitutes obscenity. They tried to gaslight, unconvincingly, that it was "just a coincidence that all the books were LGBTQ+."
Bu hikaye Newsweek US dergisinin March 01 - 08, 2024 (Double Issue) sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye Newsweek US dergisinin March 01 - 08, 2024 (Double Issue) sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Can Alternative Therapies Treat Cancer?
Doctor and breast cancer survivor Liz O'Riordan addresses misinformation around managing the disease
Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
