WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, a coalition of Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education’s enforcement of Title IX, which bars discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation. In states like Tennessee, the AGs’ push to legalize anti-LGBTQ discrimination comes in spite of broad pushback from the state’s business community, which oppose bigoted policies like bathroom bills that put the state’s “collective economic success at risk.” Government watchdog Accountable.US called on corporations that claim to oppose discrimination to leverage their influence and condemn the hateful lawsuit.

Tennessee’s corporate community has come out strongly against anti-LGBTQ policies, with over 135 business entities in the state – including Amazon, Nashville Soccer Club, and the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry – sending a letter this March ahead of the legislative session warning that discriminatory legislation would threaten Tennessee’s economic success. Despite this broad opposition, Tennessee Attorney General Slatery has pushed ahead on spearheading the lawsuit anyway.

“Bathroom bills are bad for business, but it seems that legalizing discrimination is so important to Attorney General Slatery that for him, it outweighs the economic risks,” said Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US. “Students deserve to learn in a safe environment where their identities are respected, not used as props in a conservative culture war. If businesses are serious about opposing discriminatory legislation and valuing the rights of LGBTQ Tennesseans, now is the time for them to speak out.”

This bigoted attack on LGBTQ students is just the latest in Republican attorneys generals’ ongoing effort to obstruct the Biden administration’s efforts to make progress on key issues important to the American people. Learn more about their efforts at EnemiesofProgress.org.

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