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.
Actors
On May 9, 2025, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed Senate Bill 937 into law as Public Chapter 453 of the 114th General Assembly. The measure amends Tennessee Code Annotated Titles 4, 8, 9, 29, and 49 to prohibit any public school, local education agency (LEA), teacher, employee, or contractor from requiring a student, teacher, employee, or contractor to provide that individual's preferred pronouns. Sponsored by Sen. Paul Rose and carried in the House by Rep. Mark Cochran as companion bill HB1270, it was framed by supporters as a freedom-of-speech protection.
The act removes any school or LEA mandate concerning the use or disclosure of preferred pronouns. It sits within Tennessee's broader wave of measures addressing transgender students and employees in public institutions and precedes SB1665 (2026), a later law that extended the state's pronoun-refusal protections to honorifics such as Mr., Mrs., and Ms.
By writing refusal to recognize a person's stated pronouns into statute, Tennessee narrows the protections available to transgender students, teachers, and staff in state schools, embedding non-recognition of transgender identity in state education law.
Why we recorded this
Civil rights means government does not disadvantage people on the basis of identity. Tennessee enacted a statute barring public schools and local education agencies from requiring any student, teacher, employee, or contractor to provide their preferred pronouns. Framed as a free-speech measure, the law removes any school mandate to use or disclose preferred pronouns and forms the root of the state's pronoun-refusal framework. This archive records when a state writes refusal to recognize transgender people's identity into law, narrowing the anti-discrimination protections available to a marginalized group in public institutions.
Sources
- Tennessee SB0937 | 2025-2026 | 114th General Assembly — LegiScan primary accessed July 14, 2026
- Senate Bill 937 by Rose / House Bill 1270 by Cochran (enrolled) — Tennessee General Assembly primary accessed July 14, 2026
- Employers, public schools could face lawsuits for using preferred names, genders after Gov. Lee signs bill — WSMV secondary accessed July 14, 2026
See also
- Tennessee Gov. Lee signed HB0064 requiring residential educational programs to segregate restrooms and showers by biological sex
- Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1233, creating private right of action against schools over transgender students' bathroom access
- Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed HB1895, penalizing school districts that don't enforce the state's transgender sports ban
- Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1, banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors
- Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1237, extending the state's transgender school-sports ban to private schools
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