Native Southerners certainly know that there are very pervasive and harmful stereotypes directed toward them on a regular basis. Southerners are often depicted in the media as backward, uneducated, racist, sexist, homophobic lunatics. Southern stereotypes are entrenched in American history, but they are made worse by the tiny minority of Southerners who really are backward, uneducated, racist, sexist, homophobic lunatics. One such lunatic is our very own Stacey Campfield.
When most people think of Stacey Campfield, they think of his pioneering “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which banned teachers from discussing homosexuality at school. This landmark piece of legislation, which didn’t even make it to the House floor, is what made Campfield a national symbol of ridicule by those with common sense. But did you know that he has advocated other alienating legislation?
In 2007, Campfield sponsored a bill that mandated the issuing of death certificates for aborted fetuses. He claimed he wanted people to know how many abortions were being performed in Tennessee, information which is already reported to the Office of Vital Records. I have a feeling there were really other more condescending and shaming reasons for this bill.
In 2008, Campfield sponsored a bill requiring public colleges in Tennessee to allow their full-time employees to carry their handguns on campus. The Tennessee Board of Regent opposed the bill, along with a very strong majority of faculty and students here at UT.
Campfield was elected to the state senate in 2010 where he tried his “Don’t Say Gay” bill yet again. Recently he submitted a modified version which allows teachers to answer children’s private questions but then requires the teachers to tell the child’s parents. Because gay kids certainly don’t have it hard enough as it is in grade school.
One of Campfield’s most recent bills would drastically reduce food assistance from families whose children are doing poorly in school. Starvation is a great motivation to study, after all.
Listed here is only the insanity that has been officially submitted for legislation. Not surprisingly, Campfield is also a bigot outside the state congress. He demanded to be allowed onto the Black Caucus because, you know, reverse racism. He stated that AIDS was created when a man copulated with a monkey and that it is nearly impossible to contract via heterosexual intercourse. He supported Todd “legitimate rape” Akin. The list never ends.
People like Stacey Campfield are the reason why the South still so often has a bad reputation among Americans and even the rest of the world. People like Stacey Campfield see that the world is changing and are terrified. We are moving away from societal acceptance of automatic white, male, heterosexual dominance, so a small minority of white, male, heterosexuals feel so threatened they have to fight back with hate.
I don’t know what happened to Stacey Campfield in his childhood to make him fear and hate others so much, but I am genuinely sorry for it. To make it all that much worse, Campfield isn’t even from here. New York, please, you can take him back.
— Lindsay Lee is a junior majoring in mathematics. She can be reached at [email protected].
