Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Tennessee face legal challenges that non-LGBTQ residents do not. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in the state since 1996. Marriage licenses have been issued to same-sex couples in Tennessee since the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015.

Human Rights Campaign's annual state report in 2024 classified Tennessee as one of the lowest-ranking states in the country for LGBTQ rights. Tennessee restricts the passage of anti‑discrimination municipal protections and possesses numerous laws which deny the rights of transgender individuals.

Sodomy law The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the state's sodomy statute was unconstitutional in 1996 in the case of Campbell v. Sundquist, and the law was subsequently repealed by the state legislature the same year.

In November 2023, the city of Murfreesboro within Rutherford County, Tennessee formally removed "homosexuality" from its local ordinance that criminalizes it after being ordered to do so by U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw on October 20, 2023. The ruling stated that the city "shall not" enforce any code that uses the term "homosexuality" in the definition of "sexual conduct". The Tennessee Equality Project had an ongoing suit in the matter, which has since settled. (See Drag Performances § City of Murfreesboro for more information.)

Recognition of same-sex relationships

Marriage Prior to the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee recognized neither same-sex marriages nor any other form of same sex-unions. The state banned same-sex marriage both by statute and by constitutional amendment.

In March 2023, the state house passed HB 878 to allow government employees to refuse to solemnize a marriage that went against their personal beliefs. On February 21, 2024, the Governor signed into law the one page bill.

House Bill 1111

Domestic partnership

The cities of Collegedale and Knoxville together with the Metropolitan Area of Nashville and Davidson County have enacted domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples. The Chattanooga City Council voted to allow domestic partnerships in 2013, but this was repealed by voters in August 2014. However, same-sex marriages have been available throughout Tennessee since the June 2015 Supreme Court ruling overturning same-sex marriage bans nationwide.

Adoption and parenting Tennessee allows single persons to adopt children. Same-sex couples may legally adopt in the state. In 2007, the Tennessee Attorney General released an opinion that no state law prohibited adoption by same-sex couples and that such adoptions could be made if in the child's best interest.

In January 2020, the Tennessee General Assembly, returning for its first session of the year, immediately passed a bill to allow adoption and welfare agencies to reject LGBTQ parents if the agency cited its “sincerely held religious beliefs." The exemption would protect the agencies from liability and lawsuits. 13 other US jurisdictions have similar laws. Governor Bill Lee signed the bill into law, and it took effect immediately.

In April 2024, Governor Lee signed the Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Parent Protection Act allowing individuals who do not support LGBTQ rights to adopt or foster LGBTQ children within the Tennessee foster care system, eliminating a 10-year policy that protected the "dignity and respect" of all children in DCS custody. Opponents have stated that the bill is in violation of a federal rule enacted in 2023, pointing out that the language of the bill doesn't allow for the child to express their preference. Under the Act, LGBTQ children could potentially be placed with individuals wanting to subject them to conversion therapy. Before its passage, Aftyn Behn called the bill discriminatory and stated that its very name implied the parents need protection from the children they've agreed to foster.

Discrimination protections

State and federal Tennessee law does not prohibit discrimination of the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Since 2020, the federal protections stemming from the Supreme Court's rulings in Bostock v. Clayton County and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have been available in Tennessee.

This was followed in January 2021 by executive orders from the Biden administration, enabling sanctions against schools and colleges that did not follow the directives of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or Department of Education on the protection of gay, lesbian and transgender students. Allowed actions against non-complying schools included legal action, civil penalties and withholding of federal funding. Twenty state-attorneys general joined a suit against enforcement of the executive order and on July 15, 2022, a federal judge of the Eastern District of Tennessee issued a preliminary injunction, temporarily preventing the two agencies from enforcing their directives under the presidential order. The federal discrimination protections still apply in all twenty states, only the specific enforcements outlined in the executive order are temporarily blocked, pending continuing legal proceedings.

Local The cities of Knoxville, Memphis, Franklin, Chattanooga and the Metropolitan Area of Nashville and Davidson County have ordinances prohibiting discrimination in public employment on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, but these ordinances do not apply to private employers. The Equal Access to Interstate Commerce Act blocks this from being enforced.

HB 563 This "local preemption" bill would prevent government agencies from examining a business's anti-discrimination policies when deciding whether to hire that business for a taxpayer-funded contract. A scheduled vote in the Tennessee House was rescheduled from March 14, 2019, to March 21.

Equal Access to Intrastate Commerce Act

Senate Bill 1556

R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC

On March 7, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (covering Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee) ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination against transgender people under the category of sex. It also ruled that employers may not use the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to justify discrimination against LGBTQ people. Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman, began working for a funeral home and presented as male. In 2013, she told her boss that she was transgender and planned to transition. She was promptly fired by her boss who said that "gender transition violat[es] God's commands because a person's sex is an immutable God-given fit." With this decision, discrimination in the workplace based on gender identity is now banned in Tennessee.

An appeal to the case was heard by the Supreme Court, argued on October 7, 2019, term under R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It was assigned docket number 17-1618, and decided on June 14, 2020. The finding was that employers firing individuals merely for being LGBTQ+ violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in so doing. The case was decided 6 to 3.

State of TN, et al. v. USDA, et al. On July 26, 2022, Brandon J. Smith, Chief of Staff for then Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H Slatery III, signed a court filing of a lawsuit wherein the states of Tennessee, Indiana, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia all sued the US federal government, specifically the US Department of Agriculture; Cindy Long, the Administrator of Food and Nutrition Service at the USDA; and Roberto Contreras, the Director of Food and Nutrition Service Civil Rights Division at the USDA. At issue was Executive Order 13988, signed January 20, 2021. The order prevented discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, a blanket directive to comply with the Bostock SCOTUS decision.

Pursuant to that executive order, the USDA issued a policy update on May 5, 2022. Memo CRD 01-2022 set forth policies to make certain that no discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity takes place when states process applications for SNAP benefits.

The above named states sued the USDA claiming that implementing the nondiscrimination policy would put an undue burden on the states, specifically relying on the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act and the fact that the states were not given opportunity to comment prior to the USDA policy memo being implemented. It also argued that the USDA was trying to circumvent Congress and write law.

U.S. District Judge Travis R. McDonough decided the case on March 29, 2023, ruling that the plaintiff states were exaggerating the issues at hand. The ruling states, "Does a regulation interpreting [7 U.S.C. § 2011, et seq., and 20 U.S.C. § 1681, et seq.] to prohibit such food assistance discrimination upend everything from free speech and religious freedom to living facilities and sports teams? Plaintiff States insist they do, but the Court disagrees." He went on to grant the USDA's motion to dismiss the case, at one point saying, “This case is about food stamps and nutrition education, not bathrooms, sports teams, free speech, or religious exercise,” and continuing, "Plaintiff States’ insistence to the contrary is no more than an invitation to join a political discussion untethered to applicable statutes and precedent.”

As of March 2023, current Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti's office is considering an appeal. On April 18, 2023, a motion was filed for Attorney General Eric Hamilton to appear pro hac vice. The motion was granted.

Hate crime law Tennessee law has punished hate crime on the basis of sexual orientation since 2001. The law does not explicitly include gender identity, though it is covered by federal law. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery stated in February 2019 that hate crime laws implicitly cover gender identity, because gender or sex is explicitly covered in Tennessee hate crime legislation - a legal first for a southern US state.

The opinion was issued in response to a query by Representative Mike Stewart (D-Nashville), who asked, "If a defendant selects the person against whom he commits a crime because the person is transgender, may a court enhance the defendant’s sentence under § 40-35-114(17)?" The question was raised in response to state Senator Sara Kyle filing a bill in the Tennessee Senate in 2018 to explicitly add gender identity to the hate crime statute. After the opinion, Stewart told reporters, "Let's see how the courts actually utilize the law in practice and let's see how much protection it provides."

AG Slatery's formal opinion stated that a crime committed against someone because they are transgender is covered under the queried statute, as, "a crime committed against a person because that person manifests a gender that is different than his or her biological gender at birth—i.e. a crime committed against a person because he or she is transgender—is thus necessarily committed because of, at least in part, the person’s gender."

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's hate crime statistics report from 2019 through 2021 records 0 incidents against transgender persons in 2019, 1 in 2020, and 2 in 2021. The numbers might be underreported, however, as the DOJ records at least 1 crime committed against a Tennessean as a result of their gender identity in 2019. It is also possible that intersecting regulations cause crimes that would qualify as hate crimes to not be investigated as such.

Gender identity and expression

Identity documents