Campaign Underway to Get Governor to Veto Tennessee Bill Prohibiting Local Non-Discrimination Statutes

Last week I noted that there's another horrible piece of legislation in Tennessee aside from the "Don't Say Gay" bill which got final approval from lawmakers last week. This bill prohibits local municipalities from enacting their own non-discrimination statues and would force them to rely on state law. The new law would void a Nashville ordinance barring companies that discriminate against gays and lesbians from doing business with the city.

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce lobbied for the bill. FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare are on that board, noted Americablog.

They have started a campaign to pressure the governor to veto the bill.

Today, Americablog provided this list of company addresses on Facebook in order for people to blast them.

AT&T issued a statement saying it does not support laws that are discriminatory.

They write: "Each of these organizations is a board member of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry.  Each of them is responsible for the chamber's endorsement of, and lobbying for, this religious right hate legislation.  We only have a few days to convince the governor to veto the bill – these companies need to help fix this problem now."