Written by Don Byrd
The Tennessee legislature is trying again to pass a bill that would allow student groups on college campuses to determine membership on the basis of religion. The last attempt was vetoed by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, who explained that the state shouldn’t be mandating to private institutions rules regarding student organizations.
Now the bill’s sponsors have limited the measure, but not without critics.
The new bill presented in Tennessee would only apply to state-supported schools, such as the University of Tennessee. It would change the law to specify that a religious student group could require all of its members to profess the faith of the group.
“We’re bringing that back, to apply to our public institutions –- the ones we can affect -– to make sure that you’re not forced to accept people who do not believe the same way you do,” Beavers told WPLN of the new effort.
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“These bills are about discrimination, plain and simple,” Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU-TN, said in a statement. “Legislation that would require publicly-funded institutions to recognize student groups that exclude potential members based on religion…uses religion to discriminate.”
The bill, which you can read here, has been passed on to the House Education Committee.
