Tennessee GOP votes to keep Confederate flags in classrooms but ban pride flags

One is unconstitutional to ban, while the other is treason.

I was honestly taken aback that the confederate flag is allowed to be displayed in public schools.
- Those 4 years that they were treasonous to get rid of state rights to ban slavery is very important to their state history.

That's what we get for giving the Confederates Military burials instead of an unmarked mass graves for their murderous treachery in the name of slavery.

Mercy was a mistake.

Unironically, the leaders of the Confederacy should have been executed for treason.
Fuck Andrew Johnson.

“Johnson embarked on a policy designed to restore the former Confederate states to civil government with maximum speed and a minimum disturbance of Southern institutions beyond the abolition of slavery itself,” writes historian Michael Les Benedict. “His policy placed former rebels in political control of nearly every Southern state and left Southern blacks to the mercies of the men who had fought so desperately to keep them in bondage.”

Tennessee: We're not all bigots, but you shouldn't feel safe.

Tennesseean here, this is absolutely the case. I wish there was more I could do to welcome marginalized people, but the best advice I have is to get out of here as soon as possible because things are going to get worse before they get better.
- I came to say the same thing.
  
  But I'll say this- the nazis in Nashville the other week were only able to escape unscathed because we didn't know they were there.

Let's proudly expose our slavery heritage while banning a symbol of individual freedom and diversity.

Done in one.
...while claiming to support "freedom".

Nashville has had a pride festival for the past thirty five years. They were a member of the confederacy for almost exactly five years.

BuT iTs our hiSTorY!!!

It's history they want to repeat, not the present they want to accept

1st amendment lawsuit, here we come!

That's great, but who's paying for that?
- I'd bet actual money that the ACLU is already looking for a case to sponsor.

The only Confederate flag that represents the Confederacy is 🏳️

Anything else trying to represent the confederacy is akin to a fucking high school class ring. Like "Gratz, bud. Got anything to show for it?"

The only Confederate flag that represents the Confederacy is 🏳️

It's actually even cooler than that. https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/nmah_515980
- If by cooler you mean "belongs in the kitchen"
  
  (I only say this to emasculate those that would feel emasculated by that).
But... they're showing you the class ring. That's what they got to show for it.

(This was entirely meant as a joke.)
- Woah dude what year was that?
The union jack that you see flown (just a union jack) isn't even the flag of the confederacy, it's specifically the flag for the army and navy of the confederacy. You are identifying yourself as enemy combatants with that flag.

The real flag of the confederacy changed a couple times. The first iteration looks like a knock-off of the US flag with 3 stripes and 7 stars in a blue field in the upper left. The second iteration had the union jack in the upper left hand side (where the US blue field and stare are) and the rest was white. Eventually they realized that it looked like a flag of surrender, so 36 days before the end of the war, the confederacy added a vertical red stripe on the far right side of the flag.

If their "heritage" was so important, you'd think they'd at least get it right!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America

This ban is stupid and fuck those politicians, but this article is a little misleading and not a good source of information

They never explicitly voted to keep confederate flags. That being said, one of the many types of flags that are allowed are those deemed “protected historical items” as defined by TN Code § 4-1-412 which does include items relating to “any war, battle, or military conflict in which citizens of the United States or any state or territory of the United States have participated in”.

Funny enough, this law would allow you to carry an Iranian, Soviet, or other flag that would piss people off.

I would recommend this article if you want to learn more.

Florida has declared war on "woke". That should allow all kinds of flags.
Wait that allows for a lot of communist flags. American citizens join basically every army
Okay thank you for your information! I still wanna share a snarky quote from the article though even if it isn't technically true in the case

If there’s one time ~~the Tennessee~~ legislature feels strongly about protecting free speech rights, it’s when those rights involve a symbol promoting racism and treason against the United States.
Is there any way to get a pride flag to qualify? Large scale protests seem like they could be historic (although IDK what the actual criteria is) and it would be funny if a protest against a law made the flag protected by the law.
- Not really, no. The AP article has a list of every exemptions and it wouldn’t really qualify under any of them.
I bet you could hurt some feelings by flying the flag of the Seychelles.
(It's allowed cause the USA flew drone operations out of the Seychelles under the Obama administration.)
- Wow! That flag is just BLASTING that color band at you lol. Awesome!
TN Code § 4-1-412 which does include items relating to “any war, battle, or military conflict in which citizens of the United States or any state or territory of the United States have participated in”.

Funny enough, this law would allow you to carry an Iranian, Soviet, or other flag that would piss people off.

I dunno about Soviet.

Despite spending much of the last century aiming a gun at each other's head, we really never did much by way of actual direct fighting.

A small number of American soldiers were sent into Russia during the Russian revolution to safeguard arms that had been shipped in and try to help get the Czechoslovak Legion out, and there was a very limited amount of conflict with Bolshevik forces, but it wasn't the Soviet Union then.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expeditionary_Force%2C_North_Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Expeditionary_Force%2C_Siberia

We had fighting with Soviet aircraft in Korea, but then the pilots were at least officially pretending to be Korean or Chinese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union_in_the_Korean_War

Frustrated by the quality and shortage of Chinese pilots, in November 1950, Stalin took the decision to involve Soviet air force pilots in the war, flying under the markings of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) or North Korean People's Army Air Force (KPAAF). Soviet air units dispatched to northeastern Manchuria to train Chinese pilots on the MiG-15 were first to see aerial combat against American aircraft on 1 November 1950.[16]

Soviet pilots were active in Korea from November 1950. In order to hide this direct Soviet intervention, precautions were taken to disguise their involvement, open knowledge of which would have been a major diplomatic embarrassment for the USSR.

Soviet pilots wore Chinese uniforms when flying, whilst rules were prescribed to stop Soviet pilots flying near the coast or front lines (where they might be captured if shot down) and from speaking Russian on the aircraft radio. All aircraft flown carried Chinese or North Korean markings.[17] When not flying, for reasons of ethnicity, on the ground Soviet pilots 'played' the roles of Soviet commercial travellers rather than Chinese or North Korean soldiers.
- It also allows flags from “other countries and their local governments,” which, as long as they don’t need to presently exist, should cover it. If they do, just fly the flag of Cusco, Peru
- Th Soviet Union was one of our allies during WWII

Wow Tennessee, what a shit hole it’s turning into.

Tennessee GOP quietly overturns marriage equality with immediate effect

Your "heritage" lasted three years less than the Obama Administration.

banjo playin and cousin fuckin intensifies

Underage cousins*

*FTFY. Don't forget Republicans in a bunch of states have been fighting minimum marriage age laws on top of everything else.
"Ain't nobody fuckin' mah sister but me! I done put the work in!"

Why does there need to be any flags in the classrooms to begin with? Even putting up the flag of the country seems a little odd to me. Use a flagpole.

The effect would be felt by both LGBTQIA+ clubs and GSA's in the schools, at a bare minimum. They would be unable to utilize the pride flag, for example, in any kind of advertisement, logo, banner, etc.
- I don't think school is the place for ads either.. I'm not saying it should be banned from posters about events or such but having a confederate or pride flag in the classroom just for the sake of it feels really weird to me.
To remind those people of their place.

So they are wilfully signalling that they're traitorous scum.

The whole right wing has a perpetual sedition boner.

I went to grade school in Mississippi, (Air Force brat, 1970's) and here are some fun facts:

The day started with the class reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and then singing "Dixie."
Every classroom had a paddle hanging near the blackboard. The principle and many of the teachers also had a paddle handing off of their belt.
The "That's a Paddlin' " bit on the Simpsons was a 100% accurate representation of my first day in school
The Mississippi schools were about 6 months ahead of the Utah schools I came from and they made me do a lot of the homework assigned before I got there.

My god, how far behind must the Utah schools have been for Mississippi schools to be ahead!
- Right? It shocks me to this day. They were at least 6 mos behind the MS schools.

Ban the confederate flag and prosecute anyone who flies it as an enemy of the state. We keep patting these traitors on the butt then shocked Pikachu-ing when they double down instead of magically seeing the error of their ways. I'm fucking over it and over watching dems use them as an excuse to scurry further right for "moderates" that have never and will never vote dem to please their corporate owners.

The election is coming up in.... now... We've had 4, 6, 8, yrs depending on the goal. I don't think anything just is happening in the next 251 days. I'm very afraid. And the left wing protest vote to elect Trump is such an irrational concept that the fact they believe is reasonable to any extent, already killing future votes of bystanders today, that I don't put it past them to be irrational and hand him Michigan and others on a platter.
- You can screech about leftists all you want, if they're so important maybe it's time democrats work with them instead of spitting in their face then blaming em when dems lose.
  
  Not the lefts fault dems are a stones throw from Republicans, hell look at your narrative - Dems move us towards fascism all the same but oh dems are the only hope to save our nation and leftists are "less than" plebs who are voting wrong by voting for what they feel is right instead of your party cause you say to.
  
  Just admit it, yall love harping about trump because it gives you the high ground against anyone left of Biden - yall hate leftists and see them as enemies WAYYYYYYY more than you ever did Republicans or MAGAts.
If they ban all symbols of hatred in the US, forgetting the First Amendment of course, then there are fewer vectors in which to wage a culture war and keep people from chopping off the billionaires heads.
- Swastikas are illegal in Germany. Confederate flags and tributes to proponents of slavery should be banned here. Fuck your first amendment bullshit. Ask historians about the one carve out in free speech. You do not extend it to fascists and to anti-democracy.

Losers love losing. Deniers love denying. Traitors love treason. The GOP loves Trump's shit-crusted cock, but denies being his bottom.

It's a heritage of hate.

Confederate fascism emerges in the south

Y'all... what the fuck is happening

Christofascism

Because of course they did, gotta live up to that deplorable label

Stay classy, America's South...

Name names

I learned a bit about how Tennessee legislature works after the expulsion last year. It's frighteningly undemocratic, and it's scary to think that it's gotten even more undemocratic since then. Such a shame, I enjoyed my visit to Nashville a lot.

Same here on all accounts. We have been to Nashville a few times for concerts and we really don't like the fact that now we can't go back. We don't want to support the state. We still have cups we took home from the peg leg porker.

Seems premature, totally on brand for Tennessee.

...oh I meant the legislation. We haven't had the general election for the GOP to steal yet.

For when even "If you get yours then we get ours!" is too far left for your snowflake traitor ass.

It'd be nice if legislators could just let people have whatever flags they want up.

Neither the Confederate flag nor gay pride flags are religious symbols, so it shouldn't really violate the church-state separation rules.

You could make a very easy case about one promoting discrimination.
Um, except one is an (inaccurate) symbol of oppression and hatred and the other represents freedom and expression...
- Well, it was one of the battle flags, so it still is a symbol of oppression and hatred, with an added bit of violence thrown in.
- symbol of oppression and hatred
  
  symbol of freedom and expression
  
  centrists: