The Tennessee Equality Project is continuing its push to defeat two bills of concern to the GLBT community. 

The gay-rights group has been carefully monitoring HB0821, known as the Don’t Say Gay bill, and HB0812, which would make families opt in for students to participate in family life courses.

TEP officials say that the sponsor of these bills has not demonstrated the need for either bill and that the legislation hurts the educational process by taking curriculum decision out of the hands of trained professionals in our local schools and the state Department of Education.

"No, we haven’t changed our minds about causing a commotion, but we would like to be abundantly sure that the members of the subcommittee know that TEP’s position hasn’t changed and we still want the K-12 education subcommittee to reject HB0821 and HB0812," said TEP lobbyist Jenny Ford in an email.

TEP has provided this form which allows citizens to send a note to subcommittee members through Thursday, March 18.  The group advises to keep the message simple and direct and to avoid any inappropriate language.

"A constructive tone will help us maintain our positive momentum," Ford said.