EDITOR'S NOTE: 

Monday, April 10: Tennessee’s Metropolitan Council voted unanimously to reappoint Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) back to his seat as part of House District 52. The Democrat was removed from his position in the House of Representatives last Thursday. No word yet on the reappointment of Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) and Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), who were also removed after protesting in the gallery for stronger gun reform.

I’ll give Tennessee Republicans this: There’s something to be said for making their bias so obvious that no one needs to play guessing games.

Two Black lawmakers – Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson – were expelled from the Tennessee House of Representatives Thursday (March 6) for leading protesters, along with Rep. Gloria Johnson, to the House chamber to call for gun control in the gun-happy state.

Their protest came in the wake of the March 27 shooting at Nashville’s The Covenant School, where Audrey Hale allegedly murdered six people, including three 9-year-old students, before being killed by police.

The expulsion led to widespread outrage – including condemnation from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who visited the expelled lawmakers in Nashville. Pearson, Jones, and Johnson have been dubbed the “Tennessee Three,” and in case you were wondering why Johnson still has her job while the two Black men were let go in a state below the Mason-Dixon Line, Johnson herself doesn’t wonder at all.

As a state congressionally dominated by Republicans, Tennessee has made national headlines of late for its absurdly regressive politics and legislation, which just happen to be temporally aligned with the tragedy of a mass shooting. Unfortunately, it took that act of heinous violence to underline just how deep the hypocrisy runs with the state’s Republican lawmakers.

The expulsion of representatives from the Tennessee House is no common practice, but The Washington Post pointed out the Republican representatives who were apparently not as ripe for expulsion as two Black male Democrats who were protesting to save lives.

Rep. David Byrd was accused of sexual assault by three women who claimed he preyed on him when they were minors on a basketball team he coached, and Rep. Paul Sherrell asked during a committee hearing if Tennessee would consider adding “hanging by a tree” to its execution methods. Byrd left the office on his own this year and you can still call Sherrell at his office to complain about his racist “jokes.”

Perhaps more galling is these lawmakers’ insistence on drafting and supporting bills that make it easier for its residents to obtain firearms, clearing a path for people like Hale, who legally purchased several guns despite being under evaluation for an “emotional disorder.”

Tennessee has one of the highest rates of gun deaths in the country, but still in 2021 it enacted a law allowing most citizens 21 and older to carry a handgun without a permit, background check or training. Just before the Covenant shooting, the House approved a bill that would allow people to carry rifles and shotguns in addition to handguns. It also lowers the legal age from 21 to 18.

Another bill that would allow teachers and school staff to carry guns in schools – with training and other provisions – passed the House’s Education Administration Committee April 5. Fortunately, Tennessee’s Senate Judiciary Committee had the good sense to realize that passing such laws fresh off of making international headlines for a mass shooting is not a good look and deferred all gun bills until next year.

“In Tennessee, guns are essentially ubiquitous,” said Nashville’s Democratic Mayor John Cooper following Covenant. “And when guns and mental health issues come into contact with each other you have big problems like we saw yesterday.”

But while Tennessee Republicans would have the state’s streets looking like John Wick, they seem to have a nasty itch in their collective craw for the LGBTQ community. Gov. Bill Lee signed into law in March a sweeping ban on gender-affirming care for youth, despite a mountain of evidence suggesting that it helps to save trans lives.

In March, legislators passed a bill restricting “adult cabaret performances” in the presence of children across the state, which is essentially their way of keeping out of the streets all those “dangerous” drag performers seeking to corrupt, assault and ultimately eat the children of the state after reading books to them.

And because there’s always (at least) one, Tennessee’s Lt. Gov. Randy McNally is under fire for posting flame emojis and words of “encouragement” under spicy photos posted by a gay male performer on his Instagram account, despite signing the aforementioned bills and opposing same-sex marriage laws in the past.

Unsurprisingly, Tennessee also has some of the most draconian abortion laws in the country, refusing exceptions for pregnant victims of rape and incest. Just a few weeks ago the House pushed to ease up on the laws, giving doctors more latitude to determine the medical necessity of performing abortions on women who might otherwise die without worrying about being jailed.

The message here is that Tennessee Republicans in the state only “care” about your children when it’s at the expense of the rights of others and doesn’t appear to violate certain religious or ideological imperatives. Soon as they come out of the womb, though, better teach them how to duck and cover…from bullets and drag queens.

Lest any of you think I have personal squabbles with Tennessee, understand that the state is by no means alone in the union as it pertains to ridiculous, backwater legislation (don’t get me started on Texas). But Tennessee Republicans seem to have no problem saying all the quiet parts out loud…which is not a bad thing if you want to know where you stand.

But it should be a motivator to keep up the good fight. Always.

Dustin J. Seibert is a native Detroiter living in Chicago. He loves his own mama slightly more than he loves music and exercises every day only so his French fry intake doesn’t catch up to him. Find him at wafflecolored.com.