Tennessee

Last Friday, Chris Sigler (pic), a student at Sequoyah High School, was allegedly shoved and threatened by Principal Maurice Moser simply because he wore a T-shirt in support of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club. This incident is one in a series of disturbing actions taken by the Sequoyah High School administration in its attempts to block the formation of a GSA club.

A Tennessee pastor who allegedly helped Lisa Miller [pictured] abscond to central America with her 9-year-old daughter has been charged with aiding a kidnapping, the latest twist in a long-running custody dispute between former lesbian partners.

Mayor Karl Dean [pictured] said that legislation to extend the area's protections of GLBT people "makes sense" and that he'll sign it into law if the Metro Council approves it. A new bill would require city contractors to pledge not to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., is facing protests over the loss of its women's soccer coach, who was let go after announcing she's expecting a child with her same-sex partner.

Students held a three-hour protest pushing for a change allowing for freedom of sexual orientation. The crowd included some of Lisa Howe's former players.

Mike Curb, a music industry executive and major donor to the private Christian school, said he wants Belmont officials to rehire Howe and – “act like Christians."

Edie and Tamar Love [pictured] have been raising kids together for several years. They recently registered for a recreational family pass at the University of Memphis but were turned away because there was no legal document to prove their union.

Community members learned that the family was denied a family pass and several people contacted U of M to complain. As a result, the university is changing it's policy that requires marriage certificates for family membership plans.

A three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Appeals has unanimously ordered a trial court to reconsider a ban preventing a divorced mom from having her partner of 10 years and her own children stay overnight at her home at the same time. The trial court had imposed the so-called "paramour clause" on the lesbian couple even though the psychologist who performed the custodial evaluation in the case found the partner to be a positive influence in the children's lives. The American Civil Liberties Union represented Angel Chandler in her appeal of the restriction.

The ACLU's federal lawsuit against Tennessee school districts that prohibited students from visiting gay-themed websites from school computers has been dismissed by a judge, but the decision comes after the districts agreed to remove the filtering software.