Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a resolution declaring June as Nuclear Family Month. Photo / Getty Images
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a resolution declaring June as Nuclear Family Month. Photo / Getty Images
June is Pride Month in America. But Tennessee’s government has passed a resolution calling it “Nuclear Family Month”.
Governor Bill Lee signed the controversial resolution on April 9 after it passed through both chambers of the Republican-controlled state legislature, the Daily Mail reported.
The resolution defines a nuclear family as“one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children,” saying a family “is God’s design for familial structure and has been the bedrock of society since the creation of the world”.
It cites risks of “fatherless families,” claiming that children raised without fathers are more likely to face poverty, substance abuse, mental health and behavioural issues, and incarceration.
The resolution goes on to condemn the “humanistic, globalist ideologies of the World Health Organisation, the United Nations, and like-minded organisations that fight for population control”.
Since 1999, June has been recognised as Pride Month in the United States, commemorating the June 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City — a series of riots and demonstrations following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn that helped spark the modern gay rights movement.
LGBTQ advocacy organisation Glaad criticised the move, telling the Advocate “the strongest families are grounded by love”.
“Resolutions like this do more to reveal the cluelessness of elected officials whose own families and those of their constituents have various family dynamics and structures,” a GLAAD spokesperson said.
“Lawmakers trying to exclude and intentionally harm some families should be recognised as actively harming all by not focusing their time working for an inclusive Tennessee where all are welcome and can succeed.”
The resolution came after Republicans tried and failed to restrict LGBT+ symbols last month. The legislation, “No Pride Flag or Month Act”, would have banned the display of pride flags and other LGBT+ symbols in government buildings, Nashville Scene reported.
