Tennessee Kills Law That Protected Gay Job Applicants

The bill passed the state’s Republican-led legislature easily, and initially had the backing of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce. But the Chamber backed off after seeing the controversy the bill engendered. Gay rights groups vigorously opposed it. “The Tennessee Chamber supports a standard regulatory environment at the state level as opposed to potentially conflicting local regulations,” its executive committee said yesterday. But “because (the bill) has turned into a debate on diversity … which we support, we are now officially opposing this legislation.”