Murfreesboro, Tennessee Banned Public Homosexuality

[NotHardUp1]

Why do I think that many of them are Baptist?

Many, but very possibly not the majority. Alabama, Tennessee, and othe parts of Appalachia and bordering areas are full of Fundamentalists, but not necessarily Baptists any more. Nondenominational denominations, Assemblies of God, Pentecostalists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Cumberland Presbyterians, Churches of Christ, Holiness, and lesser known orders are abundant in a way they are not in the coastal plains of the South.

I'm highly familar with the demographics of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Lousiana, and Mississippi, but was surprised at the prevalence of even harder shelled denominations over here as the soil gets rockier and the elevation steeper.

Baptists are probably no longer the largest Fundamentalist order IF you count the nondenominational quasi-Pentecostalists as one order, as you probably should. They far outstrip all others in current growth patterns, and Southern Baptists are actually in decline in many areas.

And, unlike the North, Black and Latino denominations are almost universally conservative here. Even Methodists in this region are conservative, many having just bailed from the United Methodists to move further to the right.

Catholics are but a fringe here, as are Episcopalians and Lutherans. Presbyterians, all but dead.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Both parties use fear to manipulate their base. What exactly is "public homosexuality"? I wish that both sides would fix real problems such as homelessness and access to health care. I suppose that if one has a home and healthcare then it's not an issue.

Society needs a real way to distinguish between destitute and vagabond. Plenty of street people live adrift not because they are unable to work and live in houses, but because they choose not to work, and prefer to be freed of the shackles of house, debt, and social constraints.

We need a plenary survey of tent cities and street people to even find out how many even want to be "homed." Once that is known, it will be easier to get society to care about a pattern that is not universally seen to be a failure to provide adequate public assistance, as much as it is a sentimental hot button for social justice groups.

Street dwelling varies by the wealth of the selected sites, the work ethic of the dominant population, and the social mores of those making the local laws. Travel the country, and note where the plague is worst, and where it doesn't exist at all.

 

[gsdx]

Both parties use fear to manipulate their base. What exactly is "public homosexuality"? I wish that both sides would fix real problems such as homelessness and access to health care. I suppose that if one has a home and healthcare then it's not an issue.

Because fixing homelessness and access to health care costs a lot more of tax-payers' money.

 

[peeonme]

Society needs a real way to distinguish between destitute and vagabond. Plenty of street people live adrift not because they are unable to work and live in houses, but because they choose not to work, and prefer to be freed of the shackles of house, debt, and social constraints.

We need a plenary survey of tent cities and street people to even find out how many even want to be "homed." Once that is known, it will be easier to get society to care about a pattern that is not universally seen to be a failure to provide adequate public assistance, as much as it is a sentimental hot button for social justice groups.

Street dwelling varies by the wealth of the selected sites, the work ethic of the dominant population, and the social mores of those making the local laws. Travel the country, and note where the plague is worst, and where it doesn't exist at all.

The Complex Link Between Homelessness and Mental Health

Research suggests that the connection between homelessness and mental illness is a complicated, two-way relationship.

www.psychologytoday.com

• "An estimated 20 to 25 percent of the U.S. homeless population suffers from severe mental illness, compared to 6 percent of the general public.
• The combination of mental illness, substance abuse, and poor physical health makes it difficult to maintain employment and residential stability.
• Better mental health services would combat not only mental illness but homelessness as well."

Mental health would be a good place to start in both prevention of homelessness and as a road back from homelessness.

 

[opinterph]

I suspect that the roots of the law are in the Tennessee Anti-Drag Bill that got struck down. And by tossing in Homosexuality with sexual acts, this bill will get struck down as well.

I think it came about as a response to the local Pride parade.

Murfreesboro Officials Amend Anti-LGBTQ+ Ordinance In Response To Advocates’ Lawsuit (ACLU Tennessee; November 17, 2023)

The lawsuit filed on October 6 by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, ACLU, Ballard Spahr, and Burr & Forman against the city of Murfreesboro on behalf of the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) alleges that the Murfreesboro mayor and city manager engaged in a yearlong, concerted anti-LGBTQ+ campaign to chill TEP and Murfreesboro residents’ protected speech and expression, culminating in the city establishing an official policy prohibiting the issuance of permits to TEP; discriminatorily and unconstitutionally denying TEP’s request for a permit for 2023 BoroPride; and implementing a sweeping and vague ordinance designed to censor LGBTQ+ speech and conduct within the Murfreesboro community or from TEP.

Link to original text: 23-O-22 Community Decency Standards Ordinance​

 

[NotHardUp1]

The Complex Link Between Homelessness and Mental Health

Research suggests that the connection between homelessness and mental illness is a complicated, two-way relationship.

www.psychologytoday.com

• "An estimated 20 to 25 percent of the U.S. homeless population suffers from severe mental illness, compared to 6 percent of the general public.
• The combination of mental illness, substance abuse, and poor physical health makes it difficult to maintain employment and residential stability.
• Better mental health services would combat not only mental illness but homelessness as well."

Mental health would be a good place to start in both prevention of homelessness and as a road back from homelessness.

It seems odd to suggest that addressing 25% of the group is the right strategy for addressing the larger population. Few citizens would oppose mental health initiatives, but the real problem is that society hasn't found a solution for mental illness that truly fixes the problem of mentally incapable people roaming the streets as if they were capable of full adult legal agency.

We emptied the asylums. Now we cannot even all agree that public health can enforce quarantines, so we are de-evolving, and the big cities are paying the price of the malaise.

Cities can and do make it illegal to squat in just any place. If tent dwellers are going to demand city space, it can still be in some reserve like we set aside for green spaces, wildlife, and I guess, vagabonds.

 

[rareboy]

I think it came about as a response to the local Pride parade.

Link to original text: 23-O-22 Community Decency Standards Ordinance​

Well that saves them a whole lot of legal fees.

What a stupid bunch of yahoos to throw 'Homosexuality' in the ordinance.

 

[opinterph]

Well that saves them a whole lot of legal fees.

It is my impression that the original text of Ordinance 23-O-22 (linked above) has not been amended and that the only change is removal of the word “homosexuality” from the Murfreesboro Municipal Code (Section 21-71 – Definitions). The change has not yet been codified.

Mufreesboro City Code Section 21-71:

“Sexual conduct” means acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse, or physical contact with a person's clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks or, if such person be a female, breast.

Community Decency Standards Ordinance:

“Section 21-22 Community Decency Standards.

Definitions.

(1) Indecent behavior means indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct as defined in Section 21-71 of the Murfreesboro City Code, …

The lawsuit has not abated. The City is also using the decency standard to purge books from its school libraries and to regulate permits, among other things. You were correct to suspect a connection to the “Anti-Drag Bill.” The language of the ordinance is similar to drag bans passed across the US in that it uses vague language to frighten people into self-policing, while promoting its justification under a banner of “public decency” and protecting children.

Legal fees will continue.

The problem is that the mayor and the city manager keep equating LGBTQ+ with actual sex predators, which couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Matt Ferry, BoroPride volunteer

---

What a stupid bunch of yahoos to throw 'Homosexuality' in the ordinance.

The term “homosexuality” has been included as part of the Murfreesboro Municipal Code’s definition of sexual conduct since 1977.

 

[rareboy]

And NO ONE challenged it?

That homosexuality is not a sexual act?

Surely a community so educated and apparently affluent would realize that it would be equally absurd if the definition had instead read 'heterosexuality'.

 

[opinterph]

And NO ONE challenged it?

An anti-sodomy ban remains in place today as part of Texas’ penal code as well as its health and safety code – 20 years after the Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas. Governments don’t always keep their codes up do date. As long as nobody tries to enforce an old law, NO ONE complains [challenges it].

 

[peeonme]

Should there be a penile code about anal sex? (sorry couldn't resist)

 

[rareboy]

An anti-sodomy ban remains in place today as part of Texas’ penal code as well as its health and safety code – 20 years after the Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas. Governments don’t always keep their codes up do date. As long as nobody tries to enforce an old law, NO ONE complains [challenges it].

Oh God.

This is so depressing.

 

[MartyandRosie]

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Banned Public Homosexuality

A City in Tennessee Banned Public Homosexuality—and We All Missed It

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is already beginning to implement the law.

newrepublic.com

Nothing but a bunch of Republican Red Necks!! Make me sick!!

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

And NO ONE challenged it?

That homosexuality is not a sexual act?

Surely a community so educated and apparently affluent would realize that it would be equally absurd if the definition had instead read 'heterosexuality'.

It's ok @opinterph has assured me that they hit their diversity quota so I'm sure this is just a fluke for an otherwise tolerant, educated and cultured population.

 

[NotHardUp1]

An anti-sodomy ban remains in place today as part of Texas’ penal code as well as its health and safety code – 20 years after the Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas. Governments don’t always keep their codes up do date. As long as nobody tries to enforce an old law, NO ONE complains [challenges it].

Not supporting the situation in Texas, but isn't that the intent of anti-discrimination lawsuits and philosophy, to ban and prohibit laws that are unconstitutional? It sounds like the Court's ruling is the law of the land, regardless of what lies a-moulderin' in the legislative grave.

Not sure how the federal government can force a state to remove nullified legislation as a symbolic act. The whole reserved powers problem prevents it. The Court's ruling has declared the law invalid. Anyone enforcing it would then become both subject to easy civil litigation and potentially criminal prosecution for knowingly using an illegal law to enact persecution, even a hate crime in federal courts.

It seems like an optic, and a lesser one compared to the Confederate momunents in public spaces. I would feel differently if the anti-sodomy law were chilseled in marble on some courthouse square.

The federal government has to weigh the relative merits of intervening in state matters or not, and very selectively doing so as in the civil rights violations of the 1960's through even now. I'm proud, as an American, to say that my local state legislature has been overruled by the federal court and its GOP gerrymandering rejected, with a better map imposed from outside the state. It IS one of those rare occasions when the federal government was forced to directly enforce federal law in place of state contradiction of fair enforcement.

 

[NotHardUp1]

I still remember the Mormon missionaries eager to tell me in the 1990's that an executive order remained on the books in Missouri until "recently" that allowed Missourians to "shoot a Mormon on site." Unsurprisingly, they didn't seem to be able to name any such martyrs who were sacrficed in living memory.

As tempted as I was to bait them with the wisdom of the Governor, I instead returned the focus to the import of said order, as well as its origin. The order had been signed during the melee that ensured after the uprising of the Mormons that led to a Mormon militia defying state law and actively opposing the Missouri militia. The then governor merely signed an order empowering citizens to act as agents of the state to enforce state rule, almost the same way a marshall deputizes a posse.

The order was never revoked until over a century because it wasn't an open invitation to kill Mormons after the uprising was quelled, nor was it used after that to justify any such acts. And let's be clear. Joseph Smith's widow and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, remained behind when Brigham Young left for Utah. and remain to this day headquartered in Independence, MO (and I can show you!)

All that is to say, obnoxious writ on the books doesn't necessarily mean anything if not in effect. Lots of citizens would rather it just lie there than be stirred up or pronouncements be forced about how benigted their ancestors were.

If we were talking about something like Andrew Jackson ignoring the Supreme Court's ruling about valid Indian treaties, then it would be a whole different discussion.

 

[unloadonme]

I still remember the Mormon missionaries eager to tell me in the 1990's that an executive order remained on the books in Missouri until "recently" that allowed Missourians to "shoot a Mormon on site." Unsurprisingly, they didn't seem to be able to name any such martyrs who were sacrificed in living memory.

Shoot Mormons on which site?

 

[NotHardUp1]

Shoot Mormons on which site?

Dammit. It's not enough to be a homosexual! Now I've become a homophoniac!

Apologies for the mistype. I'd claim the 2:00 a.m. spelling exemption . . . but I'm not that big of a coward . . . this time.

 

[rareboy]

I still remember the Mormon missionaries eager to tell me in the 1990's that an executive order remained on the books in Missouri until "recently" that allowed Missourians to "shoot a Mormon on site." Unsurprisingly, they didn't seem to be able to name any such martyrs who were sacrficed in living memory.

As tempted as I was to bait them with the wisdom of the Governor, I instead returned the focus to the import of said order, as well as its origin. The order had been signed during the melee that ensured after the uprising of the Mormons that led to a Mormon militia defying state law and actively opposing the Missouri militia. The then governor merely signed an order empowering citizens to act as agents of the state to enforce state rule, almost the same way a marshall deputizes a posse.

The order was never revoked until over a century because it wasn't an open invitation to kill Mormons after the uprising was quelled, nor was it used after that to justify any such acts. And let's be clear. Joseph Smith's widow and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, remained behind when Brigham Young left for Utah. and remain to this day headquartered in Independence, MO (and I can show you!)

All that is to say, obnoxious writ on the books doesn't necessarily mean anything if not in effect. Lots of citizens would rather it just lie there than be stirred up or pronouncements be forced about how benigted their ancestors were.

If we were talking about something like Andrew Jackson ignoring the Supreme Court's ruling about valid Indian treaties, then it would be a whole different discussion.

People shouldn't be too comfortable though.

I believe some states had anti-abortion laws already on the books and as long as Roe stood...they were like the anti-sodomy laws.

And then Trump was elected. And all the conservative justices basically admitted they had lied in their confirmation hearings and overturned it.

 

[unloadonme]

In York, it's still legal to shoot a Scotsman with a crossbow on sight, except on Sundays. A Scotsman caught drunk or with a weapon can still be shot on a Sunday, just not with a bow and arrow.

The 8 bizarre laws that still exist in England - and you've probably already broken some

HAVE you ever walked a cow down the street in daylight?

www.dorsetecho.co.uk