Vendor Opinion

Tennessee Legislature: Guilty of Class E Felony

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

According to the 2010 TN Code § 39-16-301 (Title 39--Criminal Offences Chapter 16--Offenses Against Administration of Government Part 3--False Personation 39--16--302), Impersonation of licensed professional, it is illegal for a person to portray themselves as a licensed professional if they do not hold such a license.

Th is section of Title 39 states: A) It is unlawful for any person who is not licensed to do so, to practice or pretend to practice a profession for which a license certifying the qualifications of the license to practice the profession is required; B) A violation of this section is a class E felony.

With the fi ling of SB0001, which prevents licensed physicians from providing best-practice care to transgender patients, as the very fi rst bill to be considered in the next legislative session, our lawmakers are once again attempting to play doctor; which is a class E felony in our state.

When Republicans went on this anti-trans crusade a few years ago, I couldn't imagine why this was suddenly a hot-button issue. What did transgender folks ever do to them? It is estimated that only one to two percent of the US population is transgender. The chance of knowingly encountering a transgender person in everyday life is pretty much slim to none. So why do Republicans fi nd it necessary to deny them medical care and publicly flog and demonize this subset of our citizenry? Weren't they fundraising off of their demonization of all LGBTQ citizens a few years ago to satisfy their "Christian" donors? To narrow the scope of their persecution to just trans individuals seems fairly arbitrary.

Maybe it's because Republicans have gotten into bed, so to speak, with big-money conservative donors like Peter Th iel, who is openly gay. Thiel contributed millions to the Republican Senate campaigns of JD Vance of Ohio and Josh Hawley of Missouri among others. As they say, "money talks!" It is widely reported that legislation to codify gay marriage into law will be passed by Congress in this coming session. That will require Republican votes. I wonder how Senators Vance and Hawley will vote.

By persecuting transgender individuals, our lawmakers give the illusion of disapproving of all sexual minorities — all LGBTQ folks — to their constituents who believe that anything but missionary-style sex between a man and a woman is disgusting. Vilifying transgender Tennesseans is a win-win for the legislators. They get big-money contributions to their campaigns from wealthy homosexuals AND keep stoking the manufactured issues about misunderstood sexual identities to divide us and to make their base feel superior.

And wasn't it brave of all our legislators who showed up at the Capitol with their yellow and black, manufactured signs with their slogan of the day, "The Rally to End Child Mutilation," to denounce the programs in our state that offer medical care to individuals who truly believe to their core that they have tragically been misidentified by gender. Who the hell do these legislators think they are? They couldn't have been more self-righteous. Of course Marsha Blackburn showed up to ask the crowd to defi ne what a woman is.

The children this crowd claimed to speak for have parents. Are they suggesting that these parents don't have the right to make medical decisions for their own children or that parents don't have the best interest of their children in mind? Are they saying that only the state has the supreme power to make medical decisions for children?

Th is legislation creates a slippery slope for other questions of parental rights. What medical interventions will the state forbid next? Will it ban treatment for childhood cancers because it can be a brutal, painful process or that treatment might affect the child's fertility later in life? State legislators are not trained medical professionals. How are our roads and bridges doing? Tennessee legislators should stay in their lane.

Remember when the legislature fi rst went on their anti-trans binge? They passed a law that all buildings open to the public had to post signage saying that their bathrooms allowed transgender patrons. That one assumed that trans women still had their male organ, which is relatively common. Now, this session all they can talk about is male mutilation. So which is it, y'all? Either you are upset that a trans woman poses a threat to society because she has a dangerous male organ, or the threat to society is having a male organ lopped off (which would not be best-practice medical treatment for a minor in any state.) You're just making stuff up now to frighten folks.

Bad bills like SB0001, should it become law, erode public confidence in all laws. With their persistent trans-bashing, current Tennessee legislators are making a mockery of the entire legislative process. Who, exactly, elected them to be medical and moral arbiters? Have our churches become so morally impotent, corrupt and consumed with prosperity that they have surrendered the power and authority of their God to the lawmakers of man? Are our doctors so greedy and rich that they don't care about their oath as medical professionals anymore? Is there no one to stand up for Tennessee patients?

Refusing to bake a cake for an LGBTQ couple is one thing. But denying a human being access to proper medical care just because they are an overwhelming minority for Republican political gain is something then again. It's unconscionable.

Tennesseans are going to die because of this seemingly endless barrage of Republican political medical malpractice. Tennessee legislators are not licensed medical professionals. Their continued attempts to pass laws that interfere with the doctor/ patient relationship is not only immoral — it is criminal.