Document Dump Shows Christian Right Scripted Sen. Mae Beavers on Anti-Gay Law

To satisfy attorneys in the gay rights lawsuit against the state last week, conservative Christian lawmakers

of correspondence related to their wonderful new statute that overturned Nashville’s nondiscrimination ordinance in the last legislative session. Copies of all these papers are neatly filed in a big box in an obscure state office on the 7th floor of the Rachel Jackson building, and Pith just finished dipping his beak into that box for a little behind-the-scenes taste of the Republican majority in action.

Just for fun, we pulled the file marked “Sen. Mae Beavers." Right off the bat, we were delighted to discover an email to her from David Fowler—the Ralph Reed of Tennessee’s Christian Right and the driving force behind the state law. In this email, Fowler shockingly treats Beavers like a puppet on a string (does the Christian fundamentalist lobby really hold such power in Nashville?) and instructs her precisely what to say about the Tennessee Family Action Council’s bill. He obviously views Beavers as not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but useful just the same as his bill's sponsor.

“The bill itself is not that complicated,” Fowler writes. “We don’t need more regulation of business and business sure doesn’t need the 348 different cities coming up with their own ideas of what a discriminatory practice is. That’s the line and you just repeat it like Glen Casada did last night when the bill passed the House 73 to 24.”

“Will the homosexuals be upset?” Fowler then asks. “Sure. But to be honest, they seem to be rather resigned on this bill.”