Tennessee lawmaker pulls her own transgender 'bathroom' bill to study the issue

On Monday, the sponsor of a Tennessee bill that would make students in K-12 public schools and colleges use the restroom that matches their birth sex withdrew her bill, at least for this year, so she could look into the issue further. "I have learned that our school districts are largely following what the bill says," state Rep. Susan Lynn (R) told The Tennessean. "I am still absolutely 100 percent in support of maintaining the privacy of all students. But I'm going to roll the bill over until next year so we can work on those issues."

A group of conservative Christian pastors descended on the state capitol Monday to support Lynn's legislation, while two transgender students held a competing event with the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the Tennessee Equality Project, the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition, and the Human Rights Campaign to criticize the measure. The ACLU applauded Lynn's decision to kill her bill, while David Fowler, a former state senator and current president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee, thanked Lynn for sponsoring it but said he was "profoundly disappointed" with her decision to pull the bill.

Lynn said she was not swayed by a letter to the GOP leaders of both chambers from the executives of 60 businesses (including Cigna, Hilton Hotels, Dow Chemical, and Alcoa) stating their opposition to the measure, saying she had received no such letters herself. And she wasn't influenced by an opinion by Attorney General Herbert Slatery that Tennessee could lose more than $1.2 billion in federal Title IX funding if the bill passed, she added.

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Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) had expressed reservations about the legislation, especially the prospect of losing more than $1 billion in federal money, though Lynn told reporters the governor "definitely supports the policy." A similar "bathroom" bill in North Carolina has already cost that state millions of dollars in lost business, and on Monday, Pearl Jam and Boston joined the ranks of musical acts boycotting North Carolina. Nashville musicians and city officials, wary of a similar blowback, have spoken out about the Tennessee bill.