Knoxville-area legislators chewed mainly on Republican red meat and conservative chestnuts during a luncheon late last week sponsored by the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists.

Thirteen members of the General Assembly, including all Knoxville representatives, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and state Sens. Richard Briggs and Becky Massey, fielded submitted questions from a moderator on issues ranging from reproductive rights, refugee resettlement and gun control to diversity and restrictions on food stamps.

Newly-elected East Knoxville Rep. Rick Staples was the only Democrat — and only African-American — among the 13 General Assembly members assembled for the forum at a Bearden banquet hall.

The majority of the officials said the legislature would continue its restrictions on abortion, including a 48-hour waiting period; expand the ability of people carry guns in public; consider limitations on what can be purchased using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies; and continue oversight of University of Tennessee diversity efforts.

The latter prompted an odd soliloquy on “diversity things” from Rep. Roger Kane, following up on a question on the General Assembly’s vote last year to transfer money away from the UT Office of Diversity and Inclusion:

“…if you look at this panel that is in front of you, we look rather homogeneous, but we’re incredibly diverse,” he told audience members. “We really are. I’ll take my case for example, you see me as a white, middle-aged man, but my mother is Jewish, my father is Catholic and I’m Baptist. Is that not diversity?

“You know, I grew up in Houston, probably one of the most diverse towns you will ever see. We have entire street signs that are in English and Chinese and Vietnamese for those folks. I mean we have one of the largest gay populations in the country, we have one of the largest black populations and that’s the school I went to. I’m surrounded by diversity, but you see me as a white middle-aged man. That’s all you see, but we’re so much more than that and even the diversity center. “

Kane continued, citing an interaction Rep. Bill Dunn had with a constituent:

“…he had a woman who said I’m a lesbian Filipino. She had forgotten all of the other benefits that she gets, that she’s a woman, she’s funny, she has black hair. Those are all diversity things. She had forgotten all of those things, because in her strive to be diverse, she had honed in on two things and that’s it.”

A bemused Rick Staples weighed in: “Well, first of all, I didn’t vote on that last year. So, I’m going to get that out there and I’m the only member that has a beard,” he said to laughs from the audience.

A full transcript of the forum is available here.

UT diversity efforts

Massey was adamant that funds were only reallocated, not cut.

“There was a diverting of the funds to other diversity efforts and Knox County and the delegation worked with the university on how to look at, to make sure that the funds being used for the diversity were being used for the intended use and that it was used in the wisest manner and the best thing,” she said.

“We did basically what I call a reset button for one year to give them a chance to evaluate all their efforts and to make sure that the diversity funding was being used in a manner that they thought was getting the best use of their dollars.”

The legislation led to the closure of the UT Pride Center, which provided support to gay, lesbian and transgender students. Rep. Eddie Smith backed up Massey’s interpretation:

“Look at the numbers, because they tell the truth. Over $6 million a year is spent on diversity efforts at UT. The one office we’re talking about where we diverted funds to minority scholarships and engineering was no more than $175,000. That tells you all you need to know. We did not take the money.”

According to previous reporting from Knoxville Mercury, state money was prohibited from being used to fund the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for one fiscal year, from July 1, 2016 through June 30. According to UT’s own figures, that’s about $446,000, which includes all salaries and operating costs for the ODI and the Pride Center. That money will instead be redirected to fund minority engineering scholarships, nearly doubling the amount of scholarship money available at least for one year.

Counseling and abortion rights

Sen. Richard Briggs, a physician, defended legislation that allows mental health counselors to decline treatment for gay patients or others with whom they may be uncomfortable.

Massey said additional legislation this year would allow the state to set its own licensing standards rather than federal standards or following standards suggested by professional boards.

Republican Sen. Jack Jonson of Nashville filed the first bill of the session in the state Senate, forbidding the Board for Professional Counselors, Marital and Family Therapists, and Clinical Pastoral Therapists from adopting any rules based on a national association’s code of ethics, according to previous Knoxville Mercury reporting. It also allows counselors to refuse to treat patients based on their “sincerely held beliefs” rather than “principles.” The counselor would have to refer the person to another therapist.

For many years, Tennessee’s counseling board had basically adopted the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics, which already provides a process for referring a case to another counselor but does not allow it to be based solely on the counselor’s own “personally held beliefs.”

A new law passed last year allowed for counselors to refuse to treat patients for the first time based on personal “principles,” but had been amended to remove the word “beliefs.” It never specifically mentioned LGBTQ people, but that was the focus of the debate on it.

“The government and legislature should not be practicing medicine, telling professionals what they need to do and what they don’t need to do,” Briggs said.

But apparently not when it comes to abortion, another topic that came up at a later point in the meeting.

“I think we have the 48 hour waiting period is what we passed two years ago on this and I don’t think that is unreasonable,” Briggs said.

“ … I believe the decision is a very difficult decision to have an abortion, and what we wanted to try to avoid on that decision is the first thing that the women thinking, if it is really an unwanted pregnancy, is I’m going to have an abortion.

“We hear from many women that after sleeping on it and a little bit of consideration they probably need to wait 48 hours on it. There is not a lot of surgery that we do, particularly something major, elected surgery, something that is not an emergency that we don’t have to postpone the procedure just for scheduling and we can argue about this, but to me, this is really a big decision. You are taking a life. We can argue about that, but it is pretty big. It is a little bit different from getting a tooth filled.”

He noted, however, that ultimately the right to an abortion remains the law of the land.

Rep. Jason Zachary said flatly that the GOP-dominated legislature as a whole is staunchly anti-abortion.

“…I think for the majority of us that serve in Tennessee it is about protecting the sanctity of life and so it is different for every state, but for us, any step that we can take, I know most of us, the guys that I’m sitting with right now have a 100 percent pro-life rating. Any steps that we can take to protect the sanctity of life (are) steps that we are going to take.”

Refugees

Legislators said the state would proceed with a lawsuit against the federal government challenging its refugee resettlement program and alleged violation of the Refugee Act of 1980. Gov. Bill Haslam said he would drop his opposition to the refugee resettlement program.

But legislators will persist in their efforts: “I think there are some legitimate concerns that are involved with the resettling and redirecting refugee question,” said Kingston state Sen. Ken Yager.

“I think that the legislature will be bringing a lawsuit soon on the cost of resettlement to the state of Tennessee and whether or not the federal government is going by current statute, to provide the reimbursement for that cost that we provide.

“So that is one issue there that is a very important issue to Tennesseans, who would pay the bill. I support a lawsuit. I appreciate Gov. Haslam’s sentiments on the issue, but I think that no one is against immigration and probably many of us in this room are for immigration, but it ought to be lawfully and the state certainly has a role and should have a role in that immigration, hence this lawsuit,” Yager said.

“We just get them and there is not a good conversation going on how we have to provide the resources and the federal government is saying take them, so that is a problem for us,” Kane said.

Lifting gun restrictions

Republican state Rep. Micah Van Huss of Jonesborough has proposed a law that would eliminate the need for a permit to openly carry a firearm.

Rep. Martin Daniel said the Civil Justice Committee, of which he is a member, will consider allowing open carry, but said there are no “constitutional absolutes.”

However, he said, “I’m always in favor of expanding or protecting the constitutional rights. Now, uh, whether the open carry law will help people defend themselves, I think this is a very crucial issue and I’d like to take a look and see what other states, how it’s working out in other states open carry law and see if there is any adverse impact there. So I remain undecided on how I will vote on this issue, but I’m interested in allowing people to defend themselves with a minimal amount of bureaucracy.”

Zachary said he would also support efforts to eliminate gun-free zones.

“One thing that is important to remember is that 98 percent of all mass shootings have occurred in gun-free zones and so anybody that is proposing a bill, and that’s according to the Heritage Foundation … the intent is eliminate some of those gun-free zones by reinforcing and reinstituting the constitutional rights that we already have in place.”

Staples stressed the need to understand some of the deeper issues linking guns and violence, and figure out ways to keep firearms from criminals and impressionable youth.

“The majority of the deaths that have taken place across our state have been in inner-city and mostly African American youth. This particular bill doesn’t really address how people are getting their hands on these guns, so I think we need to be looking at wholesale gun dealers. Speaking of gun free zones, here in East Knox there are gun-free zones, but there is still Chilhowee Park, which has a gun show three or four times a year, so that’s a contradiction within itself,” Staples said.

“So this is not really addressing how young people are getting their hands on these guns, to commit these violent crimes so what we need to look at is who is selling these guns to people and where are they getting them from. That’s really the question. If that question is really addressing, how do we stop so many deaths due to gun violence. You have to look at how these deaths are taking place.”

Food stamps

Rep. Sheila Butts, a Republican from Columbia, introduced a bill that would disallow the purchase of unhealthy junk foods by SNAP recipients.

Note: That bill was pulled early this week by its sponsor, who cited difficulties in reconciling changes with federal law, according to WBIR of Knoxville.

Massey said any effort to address obesity is a positive, and the legislation could be based on the Women, Infants and Children subsidy program.

“It could be similar to the WIC funding that can be used for women with young children, for milk and bread and the basics, things you really need to stay healthy,” Massey said.

“I do know we have a tremendous health problem in Tennessee, as far as obesity. Back in the ‘90s, the worst state in the country had about a 20-percent obesity rate. Now the best state has 20 percent, and in Tennessee along with other states … about a third of our adults are obese. Morbidly obese.

She said she hadn’t seen the bill, but “we do need to do a better job to try and get our population healthier.”

Staples again urged against a rush to judgment and suggested other approaches to providing the poor adequate nutrition.

“I don’t like the government dictating anything to the people that elected them,” he said, but noted that ‘we have a lot of rural areas and inner-city areas that don’t have healthy choices for food, that are food deserts. So if we have concerns about food stamps and where that money is going — we don’t know whether that individual is trying to make a birthday cake, or may be a diabetic.

“Look at those individuals that live in food deserts; let’s address that,” he said.

“We’re talking about our future, we’re talking about our children. Unfortunately when we do talk about that you hear a lot about money and numbers.”

“We forget we’re talking about our babies and our future. If you’re really concerned about education; really concerned about having a healthy community, let’s look at our schools and look at the food choices we are giving our children.”