Out Leadership’s Business Climate Index for the 50 United States is an assessment of states’ performance on LGBT+ inclusion. It measures the impact government policies and prevalent attitudes have on the LGBT+ people residing in each state, quantifying the economic imperatives for inclusion and the costs of discrimination. It equips business leaders and policymakers with a clear sense of the most impactful steps states can take to make themselves more hospitable to forward-thinking, innovative, inclusive businesses.
out of a possible 100 points
Not only does Tennessee lack LGBT+ discrimination protections, it has a law that prohibits local governments from expanding those protections to groups that aren’t covered at the state level. The state does not allow trans people to change the gender markers on their birth certificates, and surgery is required to change a gender marker on a driver’s license.
Conversion therapy is legal in Tennessee. The state’s Department of Children’s Services operates using LGBT+-inclusive policies toward children.
State politicians have extensive records of voting and speaking against LGBT+ rights and protections. There is no “religious freedom” law, but state lawmakers often introduce bills with a religious component, such as bills that would render national same-sex marriage laws void.
State Medicaid policy explicitly excludes transgender individuals in Tennessee. Hate crime protections exist for sexual orientation, but not for gender identity. It is a felony to knowingly expose someone else to HIV.
29% of transgender employees in Tennessee report being harassed in the past year due to their gender identity, and 43% report mistreatment such as being forced to use a restroom not matching their gender identity. 28% of LGBT+ Tennesseans report food insecurity, compared to 17% of non-LGBT+ Tennesseans.
Download this report to learn how and why Out Leadership created the LGBT+ Business Climate Index for the 50 U.S. States, with important details about our methodology, including our data standards and practices.
Our MethodologyThe legal and cultural situation for LGBT+ people varies widely across the country. This map, based on each state's total Business Climate Score, illustrates the states where LGBT+ people are empowered to participate more fully and openly in the economy, and the states that are lagging behind.
- 3.5% of Tennessee residents identify as LGBT+. Conservatively, that's LGBT+ personal income of $11.1 billion – it’s a market my business can’t afford to ignore.
- When LGBT+ employees don't feel welcome at work, they're less likely to stay, and employee turnover is a drag on the state economy and business competitiveness. It costs companies an average of $8,710 to replace an employee in Tennessee, and it can cost upwards of $325,000 to replace senior executives. Tennessee and the businesses operating there have strong incentives to create inclusive workplaces in the interest of keeping these costs down.
- Nondiscrimination policies allow LGBT+ people to participate more fully in the economy.
- Millennial and Gen Z consumers prefer to do business with companies with LGBT+ friendly advertising and policies – 54% say they’re more likely to choose an LGBT+ inclusive brand over a competitor – which is why it’s important that Tennessee continue to foster a business environment where being inclusive is supported.
- Tennessee has a regressive attitude towards trans people when it comes to antidiscrimination protections, gender markers on official documents, hate crimes protections and healthcare coverage. Treating trans people as unequal makes us look complicit if we choose to do business in Tennessee – equality is good for everyone's bottom line.
Our partnerships make our work possible. The State LGBT+ Business Climate Index is financially supported by a grant from the Gill Foundation. The Index is based on data graciously shared by the Movement Advancement Project and the Williams Institute. Ropes & Gray is our pro bono legal partner for the CEO Business Briefs globally, and their research informs this Index. FCB partnered with us to conduct original market research into American attitudes toward LGBT+ workplace inclusion, informing the Regional Context section of the State CEO Briefs. America Competes supported the development of the scoring for the Risk Assessments detailed below, particularly for the Future Risk score.
Out Leadership and FCB partnered on original market research into the attitudes of American workers on LGBT+ inclusion, which fielded in March and April 2019. The full results will be launched in September 2019; we are able to share preliminary regional comparisons in this brief.
LGBT+ workers in the Southeast are the most likely to be out at work (54.4%), but they are also 25% more likely to to feel that covering behaviors are important for workplace success. More broadly, non-LGBT+ workers in this region preferred for businesses to demonstrate their support for the LGBT+ community using internal initiatives (like hiring more LGBT employees and creating more inclusive HR policies). However, non-LGBT+ workers in this region were 57% less likely to approve of more public demonstrations of support (like withdrawing sponsorship from sporting events in less inclusive areas). LGBT+ workers in this region are 39% more likely to support inclusive businesses and 17% more likely to consider LGBT+ friendliness in making spending decisions compared to the non-LGBT+ workers nationwide. However, there is a perception that state leadership speaks about the LGBT+ community in a more negative way (39% more likely than nationwide), which could partially explain why the LGBT+ workers in the Southeast are 19% more likely to say that they would be open to moving to a different state where there is better LGBT+ support.
Unless otherwise noted, all comparisons for more or less likely are compared to the National results. Regional results are based off of 1,500 respondents (LGBT+ and Non-LGBT+ responses have been weighted to be age-representative for each audience in each region). National results are based off of 600 respondents representative of each audience (LGBT+ vs Non-LGBT+).
States in the Southeast region included: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,Virginia, West Virginia.
Legal Status of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Communit
- – The Equal Access to Intrastate Commerce Act (EAICA) prohibits local governments in Tennessee from extending non-discrimination protections to groups not protected by the Tennessee Human Rights Act (THRA). Because the THRA does not protect sexual orientation or gender identity, the EAICA prevents local governments from enacting generally applicable ordinances prohibiting LGBT+ discrimination. The EAICA also limits the definition of “sex” in the THRA to “refer […] only to the designation of an individual person as male or female as indicated on the individual’s birth certificate.”
- – Four local governments have taken advantage of a small exception in the EAICA that permits municipalities to provide additional non-discrimination protections to their own employees. Chattanooga, Memphis, Knoxville, and the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County have all passed local ordinances protecting their employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
- – Tennessee’s Department of Children’s Services has a nondiscrimination policy stating that it will “provide services to all children/youth to ensure safety and well-being, to promote dignity and respect for all children/youth and families inclusive of their gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, and to protect their civil rights consistent with State and Federal laws including youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex.”
- – Tennessee’s criminal law includes a sentencing enhancement if a defendant’s crime was partly or wholly motivated by an animus against a protected group. This hate-crime law explicitly covers individuals who were targeted “because of the defendant’s belief or perception” about the victim’s sexual orientation.
- – Tennessee permits conversion therapy.
Legal Status of the Transgender Community
- – In March 2018, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit — which includes Tennessee — held that discrimination on the basis of transgender or transitioning status violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
- – Tennessee law explicitly prohibits an individual from changing the sex listed on their birth certificate following gender reassignment surgery. Lambda Legal is currently challenging this law in court.
- – Tennessee requires “[a] statement from the attending physician that necessary medical procedures to accomplish the change in gender are complete” in order for an individual to change the gender on their driver’s license.
- – There is no explicit requirement that an individual must change the name on their license in order to change the listed gender.
- – If a person does wish to change his or her name, they can petition the local circuit, probate or county court. An individual who has been convicted of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, or a sex crime cannot change their name. Individuals who have been convicted of any other felony must demonstrate that the name-change request won’t harm public safety.
- – TennCare — Tennessee’s Medicaid program — specifically excludes gender confirmation surgery from coverage. It does not explicitly exclude hormone treatment from coverage.
- – Tennessee law does not prohibit private insurers from writing policies with transgender-specific exclusions.
- – Tennessee’s Attorney General recently issued a formal opinion stating that the hate-crime provision that provides a sentencing enhancement if a defendant’s crime was partly or wholly motivated by an animus against a protected group applies when a defendant targets a transgender individual.
Government Statements and Actions
- – In 2017, the Tennessee governor signed a “plain meaning” bill into law that requires “undefined terms [to] be given their natural and ordinary meaning.” Groups such as the ACLU of Tennessee and the Tennessee Equality Project argued against the law, on the grounds that it could facilitate the interpretation of laws in ways that are detrimental to LGBT+ individuals.
- – In recent years, the state assembly has regularly considered a wide range of legislation that would curtail LGBT+ rights in Tennessee.
- – Senator Marsha Blackburn expressed vocal support for President Trump’s transgender military ban and opposed the Violence Against Women Act specifically because it included LGBT+ provisions.
- – The mayor of Nashville issued an executive order to add LGBT+ as a recognized category of minority-owned business for government procurement.
- – Tennessee’s state colleges and universities include sexual orientation and gender identity in their non-discrimination policies.
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1No Risk
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2Low Risk
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3Moderate Risk
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4Notable Risk
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5High Risk
For more context around these scores, and to learn more about the criteria we used to assess how state laws, actions and attitudes toward LGBT+ people create business and talent risks, please visit www.outleadership.com/staterisk.
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5High Risk
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5High Risk
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5High Risk
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4Notable Risk
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5High Risk
Status of LGBT+ Organizing and Community
- – Equality Tennessee organized religious leaders against the spate of anti-LGBTQ bills – over 100 clergy came out against them.
Cultural Views of the LGBT+ Community
- – Tennessee counselors and therapists may refuse to provide services to a client if the client’s “goals, outcomes, or behaviors… conflict with the sincerely held principles of the counselor or therapist.” This enables a Tennessee counselor or therapist to turn away LGBT+ clients, provided that the counselor or therapist refers the prospective client to a provider who will see that person and the prospective client is not in imminent danger of harming him or herself or others.
- – Taylor Swift, a Tennessee native, spoke out on politics for the first time in opposition to Marsha Blackburn’s candidacy for the Senate, writing: “[Blackburn] believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values.”