Gay 101
The headline-grabbing bill-going-nowhere for this session by state Rep. Stacy Campfield is a prohibition against the mention of homosexuality in state classrooms. He proposes to forbid mention in any school curriculum, a problem his colleagues had not noticed as a problem. The matter has been deferred to the state Department of Education to see if they can run down instances of gay instruction.
As per usual, the controversial Republican representative (and blogger) will have an opponent in the primary and most likely an opponent in the general election. But this time around the competition may get a little stiffer. Instead of the Knoxville establishment finding a young sacrificial lamb to run, Campfield will likely be opposed in the August primary by Ron Leadbetter. Leadbetter, a leader in the Young Americans for Freedom during his student days in the 1970s, is a conservative who can go toe-to-toe with Campfield on conservative issues. Leadbetter is an attorney at the University of Tennessee.
Democrat Tommy Prince, a former Knox County school board member, had said earlier he would likely challenge Campfield in the general election in November.
