| LGBT rights in Tennessee | |
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Tennessee (US) |
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Tennessee face legal challenges non-LGBT residents do not. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in Tennessee. Same-sex couples and families headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for all the protections available to opposite-sex married couples.
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The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled the state's sodomy statute unconstitutional in 1996 in the case of Campbell v. Sundquist.[1]
Tennessee does not permit the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The state forbids, both by statute and in its constitution, the recognition of same-sex marriages and other forms of same-sex partnership solemnized in other jurisdictions. The constitutional amendment defining marriage was approved in a voter referendum in November 2006.[2]
Tennessee allows single persons to adopt children. The state has no explicit prohibition on adoption by same-sex couples or second-parent adoptions.[3]
Tennessee law does not punish discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.[4] In May 2011, Governor Bill Haslam signed the "Equal Access to Intrastate Commerce Act" into law. The act overrides an ordinance passed earlier in the year by Nashville's Metropolitan Council that required city contractors to include sexual orientation and gender identity in their anti-discrimination policies. It also blocks any local unit of government from requiring that companies bar discrimination on any basis not already covered by state law.[5]
Tennessee law has punished hate crimes based on sexual orientation since 2001, but the law does not include hate crimes based on gender identity.[6]
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