As June kicks off Pride celebrations, Tennessee designates it ‘nuclear family month’

The month of June, long marked by celebrations of LGBTQ Pride, has been designated “nuclear family month” in Tennessee after Republican lawmakers earlier this year voted to adopt a resolution that says “one husband, one wife and any biological, adopted or fostered children” are “God’s design.”

The resolution, signed by Gov. Bill Lee in April, makes no policy change, but carries the symbolic weight of the government’s endorsement of only one form of family unit, despite a wide diversity of families living in Tennessee, including single-parent, grandparent-led and LGBTQ+ families.

With Pride month getting underway in Tennessee with a series of celebratory events statewide, the resolution is “insulting,” said Chris Sanders, president of the Tennessee Equality Project. 

“This is what we would call adding insult to the existing injury,” said Sanders, citing a series of anti-LGBTQ measures adopted by Tennessee Republicans in recent years, including a ban on transgender care for minors.

Sanders noted the resolution has no force of law. Asked how he has seen Tennessee’s LGBTQ community respond to its passage, Sanders said, “with defiance.”

“People are still going to continue to celebrate Pride and maybe celebrate it with more gusto than in years before.” 

The resolution was first introduced in 2025 by Rep. Bud Hulsey, a Kingsport Republican, but failed to gain approval. It was revived in February, ultimately garnering votes of the Republicans who dominate the state legislature with little debate.

In introducing the resolution ahead of a House floor vote in March, Hulsey said the idea for the resolution had been brought to him by a young woman in his district who was working on her masters’ degree. 

“It just states the importance of the nuclear family and how it was foundational from the very beginning, all the way back to Adam and Eve,” he said. 

Rep. Gabby Salinas, a Memphis Democrat, challenged the resolution, noting she was raised by a single-parent family after her father’s death when she was seven years old. 

“It marginalizes people like me,” she said, taking issue with the resolution’s repeated references to “fatherless families.”

“We need to remember that words have power and you are talking about my family and my siblings…this does not celebrate the diversity of our Tennessee families,” she said. 

The resolution asserts that “the nuclear family is under attack in our beloved state and nation,” calling out the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and “likeminded organizations that fight for population control through the means of promoting sterilization and abortion practices.”

In a post from his official Twitter account, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles on Monday celebrated Tennessee’s new June designation.

“Homosexuality has no place in America. Happy Nuclear Family Month,” the post said.

Ogles later blamed the post on a staff member after pushback from fellow Republicans. The post has since been taken down.

“He took it from the abstract and made it a lot more concrete saying not only are we going to celebrate (only certain) nuclear families, we are going to tell some people there is no place in this country for them,” said Sanders.

“Blurting and attacking your constituents is the exact opposite of what an elected official is sent to do,” he said.

The resolution: