A handful of times a year, I make the 816 miles round trip home to Tennessee to celebrate holidays and enjoy time with family and friends. The Great Smokey Mountains will always feel as if they’re embracing me the closer I get. In fact, there are so many things about my hometown that I adore, including the scenery, the familiarity, the slower pace, and the fact that it takes fifteen minutes or less to get anywhere in town. It’s the place that reminds me I can sit on the back porch with a book and a beer while enjoying the sounds of nature. It’s the place that reminds me to breath.
After spending 300 miles on I-81, I see a sign, “Tennessee Welcomes You.” A sign that implies it welcomes anyone and everyone who wants to experience the rich cultural heritage across the state, one that is saturated with music and pride. Yet today, while catching up on the news as I ate lunch, I came across an article revealing that Tennessee’s Legislature has passed a resolution declaring August 31 the “idoforlife Traditional Marriage Day.”
As the article correctly pointed out, what day wasn’t already a celebration of traditional marriage in Tennessee? In 2006, a referendum was placed on the ballot, Amendment 1. This amendment sought to ensure marriage within the state was legally defined as between a man and a woman. 81 percent of Tennessee voters ratified it. Therefore, I seriously doubt there is a day set aside in the state to celebrate unions between same-sex couples.
The sign stating, “Tennessee Welcomes You,” is just as misleading as church signs saying, everyone welcome. Let me preface this by saying I don’t mean all church’s that state this don’t mean that everyone is welcome. However, coming from the Bible Belt, I’ve seen this one too many times where what they really mean is, “everyone is welcome as long as you adhere to everything we believe.”
As much as I love my hometown, it’s also one of the places I feel most afraid when I’m out and about. I don’t look, dress, or act like the stereo-typical Tennessean. Don’t misread this, there are other gay people in Tennessee who have short hair and wear ties, so maybe they can relate. And while I get comments here about my appearance, it happens more so back home.
Last Saturday, I was out in DC and a bathroom attendant argued with me, saying I had obviously entered the wrong room. She told me I should be in the men’s room. We went back and forth a couple times before she finally believed I was in fact a woman and could then use the facilities. This past Christmas, I went to a play with my family and while standing in line to use the restroom at intermission, I could feel the stares from the women around me. I was wearing a sweater-vest and a tie, an outfit I actually thought I looked good wearing. But I hoped and prayed they realized I was in fact a woman, or at best would keep their comments to themselves.
Around the holidays, bell ringers outside the local mall call me sir when I drop money in their buckets. Store clerks look at me confused when I pick out dress shirts and dress pants in the men’s section. Trust me, it’s worse if I ask for my size in men’s shoes.
Twice, the Tennessee Legislature has attempted to enact other discriminatory pieces of legislation, such as the Don’t Say Gay Bill, which was defeated again earlier this spring. The state also does not offer any employment protections for LGBT people which means I could be fired for wearing a tie or not wearing make-up to the office.
As far as my hometown (and the state of Tennessee) has come over the years, a place where 3 hooded members of the KKK showed up to recruit on the campus of ETSU in the early 2000′s, teaching evolution in schools is banned, and a prayer begins every high school sporting event, it still has a long way to go. The state doesn’t need another referendum that encourages discrimination. There are too many lives, yes lives, at risk.
If Tennessee, and other states, are so interested in protecting marriage, why don’t they do more to fight against divorce? (Not advocating for this, just pointing out the hypocrisy.) And if these same groups are advocate for smaller governments and less governmental intrusions on individual freedoms, why do they need to pass such discriminatory laws?
I can’t begin to describe how disappointed I am in my home state. Tennessee doesn’t welcome me when I come home, despite what the sign says. Tennessee holds it’s breath and waits for me to leave because I’m different and don’t represent the values of the population’s straight, Christian, Republican heterosexuals. I’m not saying everyone in the state shares these values, but I think it’s those people’s responsibility to work harder, to shout louder. These people should run for office, vote, and support candidates who support change.
One-by-one, people’s minds will, and are, changing, but that’s because people are speaking out about these injustices. American’s are so apathetic when it comes to politics and because of their lack of participation, people who don’t represent the majority are elected to office to legislate discrimination. In 2008, only 68 percent of registered voters voted. If it’s an off year election (not a Presidential year election), significantly fewer registered voters turn out. How can we think it’s acceptable, patriotic, or American to tolerate or actively participate in such apathy? Enacting discriminatory laws certainly isn’t patriotic or American. When we don’t turn out at the polls, people are elected who do not represent mine or your values and beliefs.
Therefore, I challenge my family and friends living in Tennessee to do more, speak louder, run for office, and support candidates who won’t legislate discrimination. Let’s ensure that the sign, “Tennessee welcomes you,” actually means something to everyone who travels across the state’s diverse, beautiful  geography. Because in spite of this and other laws, I’m still proud to call myself a Tennessean and I promise to do what I can, even if it’s from 408 miles away.
  http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/trueconfessionsofafemalemotorcyclist.wordpress.com/1363/

Source