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, enacted as Public Chapter 846, which amends the Tennessee Code to provide that a parent's or legal guardian's action of raising, guiding, or instructing a child "in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex" is not a basis for certain adverse findings or actions by a court, does not constitute the criminal offense of child abuse, child neglect, or child endangerment, and must not be considered as a negative factor by a court in determining a custody arrangement. The law took effect the day it was signed.

The measure cleared the Tennessee Senate by a vote of 27 to 6 on March 12, 2026 and the House of Representatives 79 to 16 on April 14, 2026, with Sen. Paul Rose as lead sponsor. By codifying a birth-sex standard into the state's abuse-and-neglect and custody statutes, the law removes gender-affirming parenting as a comparative consideration and shields a parent's rejection of a child's gender identity from being weighed in dependency, custody, and child-welfare proceedings. It is one of a series of 2026 Tennessee measures defining sex by birth and narrowing legal recognition and protection for transgender people.