Tennessee will now recognize June as “Nuclear Family Month,” a move some critics claim is less about family and more about diminishing the LGBTQ community during Pride Month.
The state’s governor, Bill Lee, signed a resolution on April 9, introducing the new holiday just two days after the state’s Republican-controlled legislature advanced it through the statehouse. June is also when Pride Month, which celebrates LGBTQ-identifying individuals, is observed.
The resolution’s language includes a definition of the nuclear family as “one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children,” and claims that it is “God’s design for familial structure” and “God’s perfect design for humanity,” according to The Advocate.
It also includes several statistics warning about the problems with “fatherless homes.” It also condemns the “humanistic, globalist ideologies of the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and like-minded organizations that fight for population control.”
The governor did not issue a statement when he signed the resolution.
The Independent has requested comment from the governor.
Lee and the state’s Republicans wanted to do away with Pride Month last year as well, but it took the legislation a year to clear the statehouse.
GLAAD has criticized the state’s decision not to recognize Pride Month.
“Resolutions like this do more to reveal the cluelessness of elected officials whose own families and those of their constituents have various family dynamics and structures,” GLAAD wrote in a statement to The Advocate.
“The strongest families are grounded by love. Lawmakers trying to exclude and intentionally harm some families should be recognized as actively harming all by not focusing their time working for an inclusive Tennessee where all are welcome and can succeed,” the statement said.
The resolution has no enforcement teeth, meaning Tennesseans are free to celebrate Pride Month or not celebrate “Nuclear Family Month” if they choose.
A previous state GOP-led piece of legislation, the “No Pride Flag or Month Act,” died in a state Senate committee meeting in March, Nashville Scene reports.
That legislation would have banned the display of Pride flags or other LGBT symbols in government buildings, had it passed.
During deliberations, Democratic state Senator Jeff Yarbro said that the legislation was a blatant attempt to infringe on the freedom of speech afforded to all Americans.
“There is no way to do this without just wildly overreaching on freedom of speech,” he said last month. “I think it’s wrong and inappropriate to target this group, but it’s wrong and inappropriate to target any group like this.”
The committee voted 3-3 on the legislation, which was not enough for it to advance.
State Representative Gino Bulso, the Republican who introduced the No Pride Flag or Month Act, claims he did so after parents began complaining to him that their children’s teachers were displaying Pride flags and other LGBTQ symbols in their classrooms.
Bulso tried to pass a similar measure in 2024, but it also died in the Senate.
