LGBT rights in Tennessee

Prior to being overturned, Tennessee recognized neither same-sex marriages nor any other form of legal recognition of same sex-unions. The state banned same-sex marriage both by statute and by constitutional amendment. That ban was overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 26, 2015.

Map of Tennessee counties and cities that offer domestic partner benefits either county-wide or in particular cities.

  City offers domestic partner benefits

  County-wide partner benefits through domestic partnership

  County or city does not offer domestic partner benefits

The cities of Collegedale[2] and Knoxville[3] together with the Metropolitan Area of Nashville and Davidson County[4][5] have enacted domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples. The Chattanooga City Council voted to allow domestic partnerships in 2013, but this was repealed by voters in August 2014.[6] However, same-sex marriages have been available throughout Tennessee since the June 2015 Supreme Court ruling overturning same-sex marriage bans nationwide.

This "local preemption" bill would prevent government agencies from examining a business's anti-discrimination policies when deciding whether to hire that business for a taxpayer-funded contract. A scheduled vote in the Tennessee House was rescheduled from March 14, 2019 to March 21.[15]

On March 7, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (covering Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee) ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination against transgender people under the category of sex. It also ruled that employers may not use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to justify discrimination against LGBT people. Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman, began working for a funeral home and presented as male. In 2013, she told her boss that she was transgender and planned to transition. She was promptly fired by her boss who said that "gender transition violat[es] God's commands because a person's sex is an immutable God-given fit."[16] With this decision, discrimination in the workplace based on gender identity is now banned in Tennessee. An appeal to the case is set to be heard by the Supreme Court in the 2019 term under R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In 1977, the Tennessee state legislature prohibited the state from altering the sex on a birth certificate. According to the Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-3-203(d): “The sex of an individual shall not be changed on the original certificate of birth as a result of sex change surgery."[20][21]

When the Tennessee state legislature reconvened in May 2020 during the coronavirus health crisis, the House moved HB 1572[22] and HB 1689[23] targeting transgender student athletes. The Senate also had the ability to move SB 1736[24] (its version of HB 1689), as this had been under consideration before the Legislature adjourned in March.

In March 2020, before the House adjourned during the coronavirus health crisis, it had been considering HB 2576[25] and HB 2827,[26] targeting medical care for transgender youth.

On May 2, 2019, Tennessee governor Bill Lee signed into law legislation defining a trans person using the bathroom corresponding with their gender identity as indecent exposure. While the language of said bill had been significantly watered down to be less blatant, advocacy groups still pointed to it as accomplishing its original goal.[27]