Bill Lee
Bill Lee is the Governor of Tennessee, in office since January 2019 and re-elected in 2022. Almost every entry naming him records his signature on legislation passed by the Tennessee General Assembly rather than an action he initiated, concentrated in measures affecting transgender residents, school curricula and public expression. Where the archive records a Tennessee bill, it generally names both the legislature that passed it and Lee as the signing authority.
2026 Events (10)
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed SB1665, extending pronoun-refusal immunity law to honorifics
On May 22, 2026, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB1665 into law as Public Chapter 1076, effective immediately. The act extends the state's existing pronoun-refusal law — which shields students, teachers, state employees, and state contractors from being required to use a person's preferred name or pronoun — so that the same immunity from civil liability and disciplinary action now also covers refusal to use honorifics such as Mr., Mrs., and Ms. that are inconsistent with a person's sex.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the Women's Safety and Protection Act, barring gender-identity recognition in sex-segregated facilities
On May 22, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB0468/HB0571, the "Women's Safety and Protection Act," which requires sex-segregated spaces — domestic-violence shelters, correctional and juvenile-detention facilities, public higher-education housing, and public-school overnight lodging and changing rooms — to be designated by biological sex "as observed or clinically verified at birth" and states that the terms do not include gender identity. The law, effective July 1, 2026, ends legal recognition of transgender people's gender identity in those state-regulated settings and creates a private cause of action allowing individuals to sue non-complying facilities.
Tennessee's execution physician botched Tony Carruthers' lethal injection; governor postponed execution one year
On May 21, 2026, the Tennessee Department of Corrections attempted to execute Tony Carruthers at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville, but the appointed execution physician, Dr. Mark Fowler, spent more than 90 minutes failing to place the intravenous lines required by protocol before Governor Bill Lee called off the execution and postponed it one year. Fowler had not performed a central IV line procedure since 2013 and held no hospital privileges; the state had sought to conceal his identity under a secrecy law.
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed HB0754 requiring providers to report transgender patients' data to the state
On May 15, 2026, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed HB0754 into law as Public Chapter 932, requiring healthcare providers and insurers that receive state funds to report data on patients who receive gender-affirming care — including treatment type, sex assigned at birth, age, county, and provider information — to the state health department. Providers who fail to comply face license suspension of at least six months and fines of up to $150,000, and the law also requires people seeking insurance coverage for gender-affirming care to purchase detransition coverage. Critics describe the reporting regime as a surveillance registry of transgender Tennesseans.
Tennessee enacted HB1271, requiring state and local governments to define sex by birth anatomy over gender identity
On May 7, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1271 (Public Chapter 938) into law, amending Titles 1 through 8 of the Tennessee Code relative to "biological sex." The law requires every governmental entity in the state — including local governments — to revise its ordinances, resolutions, rules, policies, and procedures so that any reference to sex or gender is defined as the immutable characteristics of a person's reproductive system as determined by anatomy and genetics at birth, overriding local recognition of gender identity. The House passed the bill 72-16 on March 30 and the Senate 24-6 on April 22, 2026, and it took effect on signing.
Tennessee enacts mid-decade congressional map eliminating Memphis majority-Black 9th district
On May 7, 2026, the Tennessee General Assembly passed and Governor Bill Lee signed a new congressional district map that splits Memphis — the population core of Tennessee's only majority-Black, Democratic-held U.S. House district — among three Republican-leaning districts. The action followed by eight days the U.S. Supreme Court's April 29, 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which substantially weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and removed a key legal constraint on mid-decade racial-vote-dilution maps.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1989 shielding "biological sex" parenting from abuse findings and custody loss
On April 27, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1989 (Public Chapter 846), which provides that a parent or guardian raising a child "in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex" cannot be a basis for a court finding of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment, and must not be considered a negative factor in a custody determination. The Senate passed the bill 27-6 on March 12 and the House 79-16 on April 14, and the law took effect the day it was signed.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB2031 exposing gender-affirming care providers to decades-long civil liability
On April 23, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB2031 (Public Chapter 794), creating a private civil cause of action that lets patients sue healthcare providers over medical care intended to help a person live consistent with a gender identity different from their sex. The law carries a statute of limitations reported at up to 30 years and no statutory definition of "coercion," and took effect on signing. It cleared the Republican-controlled General Assembly along largely party lines, passing the Senate 24-5 and the House 72-19.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB2498, barring TennCare from covering gender-affirming care
On April 16, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB2498/SB2118 (Public Chapter 765) into law, prohibiting the state Medicaid program, TennCare, from covering or reimbursing any procedure intended to help a person live consistently with a gender identity inconsistent with their sex. The measure passed the House 73-14 and the Senate 27-6 and takes effect July 1, 2026, cutting off public-insurance funding for gender-affirming care for TennCare enrollees of all ages. Treatment for congenital defects, precocious puberty, disease, or physical injury remains covered, and enrollees already in treatment may continue through March 31, 2027.
Tennessee enacted HB1665, barring healthcare providers from asking minor patients about gender identity
On April 13, 2026, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1665 (companion SB1664), enacted as Public Chapter 748, which prohibits healthcare providers from knowingly or willfully asking a minor gender-identity-related questions and bars health insurers, managed-care organizations, and reimbursement entities from requiring or requesting that providers ask such questions. The House passed the bill 72-21 on March 16, 2026, and the Senate 27-6 on March 19; the law takes effect October 1, 2026. Advocates and public-health groups have described it as an "anti-trans medical censorship" measure that discourages clinicians from discussing gender identity with minor patients.
2025 Events (3)
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed SB0937, barring public schools from requiring anyone to provide their preferred pronouns
On May 9, 2025, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB0937 into law as Public Chapter 453 of the 114th General Assembly. The act prohibits any public school, local education agency, teacher, employee, or contractor from requiring a student, teacher, employee, or contractor to provide the individual's preferred pronouns. Framed as a freedom-of-speech measure, it removes any school mandate around the use or disclosure of preferred pronouns and is the originating statute in Tennessee's series of pronoun-refusal laws.
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed the Medical Ethics Defense Act, letting providers refuse care on conscience grounds
On April 24, 2025, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed the "Medical Ethics Defense Act" (SB0955/HB1044) into law as Public Chapter 266, giving health care providers, institutions, and payers a right of conscience to refuse to participate in or pay for any procedure, treatment, or service that violates their religious, moral, or ethical beliefs. The law took immediate effect and was enacted primarily to shield providers who object to abortion, contraception, and gender-affirming care. Opponents warned it keys refusal to conscience rather than a specific procedure, opening the door to care denials aimed at LGBTQ and transgender patients.
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed HB0064 requiring residential educational programs to segregate restrooms and showers by biological sex
On April 3, 2025, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed House Bill 0064 (Public Chapter 134), requiring residential educational programs that house minors overnight — including private residential schools, postsecondary institutions, and any program with overnight facilities for elementary or secondary students — to designate multi-occupancy restrooms, changing areas, and showers by immutable biological sex. Sponsored by Rep. Gino Bulso, the measure passed the House 74-18 and the Senate 25-4 and took effect immediately. It bars transgender students from facilities matching their gender identity.
2024 Events (6)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB2310, imposing civil liability on adults who help minors obtain gender-affirming care
On June 3, 2024, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB2310/SB2782, enacted as Public Chapter 1064, creating a civil cause of action against any person who intentionally recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor within Tennessee for the purpose of obtaining gender-affirming care that the state already bans for minors. The law, effective July 1, 2024, lets a minor or the minor's parents sue such adults for damages, while exempting the minor's own parents or guardians and common transportation carriers. Reported as a first-in-the-nation measure, it extends Tennessee's 2023 ban on gender-affirming care for minors by penalizing third parties who help trans youth access that care.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1810 requiring schools to report students' gender-identity requests to parents
On May 9, 2024, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1810, enacted as Public Chapter 832, amending Title 49 of the Tennessee Code. The law requires a K-12 public school or charter school employee to report a student's request for an accommodation affirming the student's gender identity — such as a different name or pronouns — to a school administrator, who must then report it to the student's parent. It also bars employees from knowingly giving parents false or misleading information about a student's gender identity and creates a private right of action alongside attorney general enforcement against noncompliant schools.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB2766, removing sexual orientation and other named protected classes from the educator code of ethics
On May 1, 2024, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB2766 (Public Chapter 780), which amended the K-12 educator code of ethics. The prior statute barred educators from disadvantaging a student on an enumerated list of protected characteristics including sexual orientation, race, sex, and family, social, or cultural background; as enacted, the bill struck that list and substituted a general prohibition on discriminating against a student "on any basis."
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB 2861, barring state funds for gender-affirming care for inmates
On April 29, 2024, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB 2861 (Public Chapter 821), prohibiting the state Department of Correction from using state funds to provide hormone replacement therapy or sex-reassignment surgery to inmates held in a state penitentiary, county jail, or workhouse. The General Assembly had passed the measure, with the Senate voting 24-3 on April 4 and the House 71-20 on April 11. The law took effect immediately upon signing.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a law shielding foster and adoptive parents who refuse to affirm a child's LGBTQ identity
On April 17, 2024, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1738, the "Tennessee Foster and Adoptive Parent Protection Act," codified as Public Chapter 677 and effective July 1, 2024. The law bars the Department of Children's Services from requiring foster or adoptive parents to affirm any government policy on sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with their religious or moral beliefs, and from denying eligibility or placement on that basis. It passed the Senate 25-6 and the House 73-20.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB0878 letting officials and officiants refuse to solemnize any marriage
On February 21, 2024, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB0878, enacted as Public Chapter 511, adding to Tennessee Code 36-3-301 that "a person shall not be required to solemnize a marriage." Because notaries, government officials, and religious officials are all authorized to solemnize marriages in Tennessee, the law creates a blanket right for any authorized officiant to decline to perform a marriage. The bill's sponsor said it would let officiants refuse marriages "contrary to their beliefs" as views change about "what constitutes a marriage."
2023 Events (6)
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed SB1440 defining 'sex' as immutable at birth, ending gender-marker updates on state IDs
On May 24, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB1440 (Public Chapter 486) into law, adding a statutory definition of "sex" as "a person's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth" throughout Tennessee code. The measure had passed the Senate 27-6 and the House 71-21. Citing the new definition, the Tennessee Department of Safety stopped updating gender markers on driver's licenses for transgender residents.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB0466, shielding public-school employees who refuse transgender students' pronouns
On May 17, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB0466 into law as Public Chapter 448, specifying that a teacher or other public-school employee is not required to refer to a student by a preferred pronoun inconsistent with the student's sex assigned at birth. The law insulates employees from civil liability and adverse employment action for instead using the pronoun consistent with that biological sex, taking effect immediately on signing.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1443/HB727 requiring parental opt-in consent for LGBTQ curriculum and school club membership
On May 17, 2023, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1443/HB727 into law as Public Chapter 353, after the Senate passed it 25-5 and the House 74-24. The law requires a student's parent or guardian (or the student, if 18 or older) to give written opt-in consent before the student receives instruction of a "sexual orientation curriculum or gender identity curriculum," and separately bars any minor from joining or participating in any school club without prior dated, written parental consent. The club-consent provision, added by floor amendment, functions as a forced-outing mechanism for students who wish to join LGBTQ-support clubs such as Gender-Sexuality Alliances.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1237, extending the state's transgender school-sports ban to private schools
On May 4, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB1237 into law as Public Chapter 285, limiting a private-school student's eligibility for interscholastic athletics governed by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association to participation "in accordance with the student's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth." The law extends to TSSAA-affiliated private schools a transgender-athlete restriction Tennessee already applied to its public schools.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1, banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors
On March 22, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 1 (SB0001/HB0001, Public Chapter 1) into law, prohibiting healthcare providers from performing surgery or administering hormones or puberty blockers to a minor for the purpose of enabling the minor to identify with or live as a gender inconsistent with the sex assigned at birth. The law creates private civil causes of action, including wrongful death, against providers and consenting parents, and authorizes the state attorney general to seek injunctions, disgorgement, and $25,000-per-violation civil penalties. The bill passed the Senate 26-6 and the House 77-16 and took effect July 1, 2023.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB0003, the nation's first law criminalizing drag and adult-cabaret performances
On March 2, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB0003, the "Adult Entertainment Act" (Public Chapter No. 2), the first state law in the nation to criminalize "adult cabaret performance" — defined to include "male or female impersonators" — on public property or anywhere a minor could view it. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Jack Johnson and Rep. Chris Todd, passed the Senate 26-6 and the House 74-19 and took effect April 1, 2023.
2022 Events (2)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB 2153, barring transgender women from college sports
On May 9, 2022, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB 2153 (Public Chapter 1005), barring students of the male sex from intercollegiate or intramural sports designated for "females," "women," or "girls" at public (and certain private) institutions of higher education, requiring institutions to rely on a student's original birth certificate. The same act created a private civil cause of action for violations of Tennessee's existing K-12 transgender sports ban enacted in 2021.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1895, penalizing school districts that don't enforce the state's transgender sports ban
On April 22, 2022, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed House Bill 1895 (Public Chapter 909), amending the state's 2021 K-12 transgender sports ban to add a funding penalty. Under the law, the Tennessee Department of Education must withhold a portion of state education-finance funds from any local school district that fails to determine a student's sex at birth for school-sports eligibility purposes. The bill passed both chambers before Lee's signature and took effect July 1, 2022.
2021 Events (5)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1233, creating private right of action against schools over transgender students' bathroom access
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed House Bill 1233 into law on May 19, 2021, enacting Public Chapter 452, the Tennessee Accommodations for All Children Act. The law defines sex by birth anatomy, limits schools to single-occupancy accommodations for students seeking facility privacy, and creates a private civil right of action against a school district that knowingly allows a member of the opposite sex into a multi-occupancy restroom, changing facility, or sleeping quarters.
Tennessee Gov. Lee signed HB1182, requiring businesses to post signs disclosing transgender-inclusive restroom policies
On May 19, 2021, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed HB 1182 into law as Public Chapter 453, requiring any business or facility open to the public that maintains a transgender-inclusive restroom policy to post a government-scripted warning sign at each restroom entrance. Sponsored by state Rep. Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro), the law passed the House 62-25 and took effect July 1, 2021, with noncompliant businesses facing criminal enforcement.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB0126, barring hormone treatment for prepubertal transgender minors
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 126 into law on May 18, 2021, enacting Public Chapter 460. The law bars healthcare prescribers from providing hormone treatment to prepubertal (Tanner stage 1) transgender or gender-incongruent minors, while preserving hormone treatment for minors with growth deficiencies or other diagnoses unrelated to gender dysphoria or gender incongruence.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1229, requiring parental notice and opt-out for LGBTQ curriculum
On May 5, 2021, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1229 into law as Public Chapter 281, requiring public schools and charter schools to give parents at least 30 days' notice before teaching any sexual-orientation or gender-identity curriculum and to let parents excuse their child from that instruction in writing. The law imposes no comparable parental-consent requirement on any other curricular subject and specifies that schools are not required to offer such curriculum at all.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB 228, requiring K-12 school sports participation be based on sex assigned at birth
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 228 into law on March 26, 2021, enacting Public Chapter No. 40 and requiring that a student's eligibility for public middle and high school interscholastic athletics be determined by the sex indicated on the student's original birth certificate. The law exempted kindergarten through grade 4, took effect immediately for the 2021-2022 school year, and barred transgender students from competing on teams consistent with their gender identity.
2020 Events (1)
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB 836 shielding faith-based adoption agencies that deny LGBTQ+ families
On January 24, 2020, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed House Bill 836 into law as Public Chapter 514, amending Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 36, Chapter 1, Part 1. The law bars the state from requiring a private licensed child-placing agency to perform, assist, consent to, refer, or participate in any foster-care or adoption placement that would violate the agency's written religious or moral convictions, and shields such agencies from lawsuits and licensing retaliation for refusing an applicant on those grounds. It passed the Senate 20-6 on January 14, 2020, after passing the House 67-22 on April 1, 2019.