Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Legislature More Homophobia From the Fowler File
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 9:59 AM
According to Gee, the documents show Christian Right lobbyist David Fowler “feared his moral thoughts on the measure would become public and distract from the economic argument he used to sell” the state law that invalidated Nashville’s anti-gay bias ordinance.
That’s one way to put it, we guess. Here's a better way: Fowler was trying to trick the public into thinking his bill was aimed at eliminating an unfair business regulation because that would make it possible for Republicans to vote for it without looking like bigots.
What really worried Fowler was that some bone-headed lawmaker would stray from his talking points and blurt out the true reason for the law, which obviously was to deny gay people protection from workplace discrimination.
“Please do NOT pass this on to anyone who you think might in the slightest pass it to anyone else,” Fowler wrote in one email to his legislative allies. “We’ve learned that some folks we thought were friends cannot be trusted and we don’t need the Chamber backing off because it starts to appear to be too much of a Christian, right wing, homosexual issue rather than a business/economic issue.”
Fowler fretted that the Chamber of Commerce might come out against his bill because businesspeople “didn’t want to come across as homophobes or send the country a signal that Nashville was not a great city for all people — was inclusive.” A true profile in courage, the Chamber did wind up opposing the bill—but only after the legislature adopted it.
Fowler momentarily abandoned his little subterfuge when the going got tough in the legislature. Facing a close vote in a House subcommittee, his Family Action Council pressured lawmakers by producing a web video depicting a gay man as a stalking pedophile.
Legislators knuckled under to Fowler and read from his script. This is all about unfair business regulations, they repeated like zombies.The whole legislative debate was one big charade, as anyone could plainly see. Fowler thinks none of this will matter in Davidson County Chancery Court, where the gay rights lawsuit is being heard. To win, the plaintiffs must show the legislature intended to illegally discriminate. Fowler claims that, as a mere lobbyist, his own motivations are irrelevant.
But how do you determine what the legislature intended to accomplish? Are you limited to what the law itself says and what lawmakers said during public debates in committee hearings and on the House and Senate floor? Or can you consider political strategy memos and what’s said during behind-the-scenes meetings? The lawsuit will turn on the answers to those questions.
Comments (10)
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Be sure to write a review of the 501(c)(3) Family Action Council of Tennessee at its guidestar.org listing page:
http://www2.guidestar.org/organizations/20-5001627/family-action-council-tennessee.aspx#
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Perhaps Mr. Woods could stop by David Fowlers FACT offices and ask to inspect the 2010 501(c)(3) Form 990 public record filing that Fowlers is apparently many months late in filing with the Internal Revenue Service...
What is the actual physical location of the offices for both the 501(c)(3) Tennessee Family Action Council 501(c)(4) Family Action of Tennessee? I enter the 2000 Mallory Lane Suite 130 Franklin, Tennessee address and keep coming up with a UPS Store:
The UPS Store
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/The.UPS.Store.615-771-2120
2000 Mallory Lane Ste 130
Franklin, TN 37067
615-771-2120
Individuals have a right to visit Fowler's offices to inspect and photocopy the Form 990 'Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax' and other such public inspection records required of the Family Action Council of Tennessee by the Internal Revenue Service!
To be fair, it was easy for David Fowler and TN Chamber President Deb Woolley to dupe a couple of local very small businesses and very small-minded lawmakers in Tennessee.
It wasn't so easy trying to dupe the state's best job creators with the kind of business values that distinguish them from washed-up companies who didn't have the courage to put their name on this disgracefull legislation.
Alcoa, Nissan, FedEx, Comcast, AT&T, Embraer, KPMG, and UnitedHealth, on the other hand, all issued press releases slamming the TN Chamber for soiling their brands. It's worth repeating and worth reporting the bold statements by these and other businesses that really matter in Tennessee if only to povide some fair contrast with the very unbold and unambitous small-minded friends of David Fowler.
I suggest you also look into another organization defending FACT's right to conceal their true motives...Alliance Defense Fund. Their lawyers have come to Nashville from Arizona to work on this case. They have a history of fighting any equality for GLBT citizens.
He feared his IM-moral thoughts on the measure would become public and everyone would find out about his bobbing for "apples" parties.
"Alcoa, Nissan, FedEx, Comcast, AT&T, Embraer, KPMG, and UnitedHealth, on the other hand, all issued press releases slamming the TN Chamber for soiling their brands."
Didn't many of these companies wait until AFTER the law was passed before making public commment? Not very bold after all.
Maybe so, Kosh, but the fact is, America's most successful businesses already have non-discrimination policies related to gay Americans, and they understand full well that discriminating against qualified, competent, and capable employees out of bigotry is bad for business. Well, and it's morally wrong, too.
Fowler and Patray and and their dittohead bunch of homophobic bigots are fundamentally bad people. The state legislators who voted to deny Nashville the right to require nondiscrimination by city contractors are hypocrites (who champion local control as long as it parrots their own prejudices), cowards, moral bankrupts, who continue their tradition of embarrassing thinking Tennesseans.
