Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday night withdrew without explanation an anti-LGBTQ adoption bill that would have allowed adoption agencies to refuse gay parents and other families due to religious beliefs.
The AP reports: “The bill had been scheduled to be debated by the GOP-dominant Senate. However, at the last minute, the sponsor quietly asked for the proposal to be taken up next legislative session — essentially killing it for the year. There was no debate or explanation why the bill with withdrawn.”
Lawmakers are still considering additional bills including the Natural Marriage Defense Act which would prohibit same-sex weddings.
And lawmakers advanced a watered-down transgender “bathroom bill” that would make “the state's public indecency law to apply to bathrooms and changing rooms — a move that critics argue is designed to restrict the facilities that transgender people can use.”
The AP adds: “While the bill had been significantly amended, critics argue there's still risk the bill could be misused to arrest transgender people.”
Major corporations have come out against the legislation in recent days, notably the Tennessee Titans football team and Amazon.
Taylor Swift donated $113,000 to the Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ rights group working to overturn discriminatory legislation in the state.
Wrote Swift in a letter to the group's director Chris Sanders: “I'm writing you to say that I'm so inspired by the work you do, specifically in organizing the recent petition of Tennessee faith leaders standing up against the ‘slate of hate' in our state legislature. Please convey my heartfelt thanks to them and accept this donation to support the work you and these leaders are doing. I'm so grateful that they're giving all people a place to worship.”