NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — In the state's final week of the legislature, the Senate voted down a bill to restrict all flags in public schools other than the Tennessee and American flags.
Now that the bill has failed, teachers and schools can still display the flags they want. That includes the Pride flag.
"I don't think you can go wrong in supporting children in being who they are," said Erin Moore, who's fought for this outcome with the Tennessee Equality Project and has a son in the LGBTQ community herself. "I think people just want to live their lives, and they don't want to think about this all the time. This is really exhausting for people to keep coming back year after year after year to defend the right to exist."
However, it's a letdown for those who had a hand in creating the bill, like Sen. Joey Hensley.
"There were some parents in my district that felt like a lot of flags were being displayed in the public school classroom that did not coincide with their values, [that] feel like their children should not be indoctrinated in the school," said Hensley. "Every child would feel loved and needed in the school and nobody would be singled out, so the original bill was the United States flag and the Tennessee flag that should be incorporating all of us in the state."
The failed bill means it would have to be recreated next year.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
