Metro Councilwoman Courtney Johnston, who is challenging Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) in the Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional district, previously cosponsored a resolution in to set an official day for Nashville to recognize the Transgender Day of Remembrance in 2023.
Johnston is listed among the 29 sponsors of RS 2023-99, which was titled, “A Resolution recognizing November 20, 2023, as Transgender Day of Remembrance in Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee.”
The resolution was approved unanimously by all 39 councilmembers who were present at the for the vote, including Johnston.
The Tennessee Star contacted Johnston’s campaign for comment about her decision to sponsor and vote for the resolution, but did not receive a response prior to press time.
Nashville’s resolution states it “honors the memory of transgender people around the world whose lives have been lost to anti-transgender violence.” Additionally, President Joe Biden’s U.S. State Department defines the Transgender Day of Remembrance last year as “a day to commemorate the transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming persons who are targeted and killed for living authentically and courageously.”
During the year prior to the vote, the Human Rights Campaign reported 41 transgender individuals were killed across the United States. The organization did not state whether transgenderism was a motivation for the attacks.
However, homicides of those who identify as transgender fell nearly 25 percent in 2023, with the Human Rights Campaign recently reporting just 31 killings of “transgender and gender-expansive people” occurred last year.
Johnston made the vote in favor of naming the official Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 7, 2023, just five months before she described herself as “a real conservative leader” when announcing her challenge to Ogles.
Earlier in 2023, Johnston told Nashville Scene she regularly finds areas of agreement with liberal members of the Metro Nashville Council.
“A lot of my colleagues are further left-leaning, but we agree more often than not because good policy is good policy,” Johnston told the outlet. She explained, “I’m not out here fighting abortion or LGBT anything, like some conservative-leaning groups want me to and have pressured me to do. That’s not what I’m here to do. But we can all agree on fiscal responsibility.”
The previous year, Johnston issued a public letter to Governor Bill Lee with a demand he call a special session for lawmakers to form new gun laws.
While she insisted her letter was “not about gun control” and she was “not questioning the second amendment,” Johnston seemed to suggest Tennessee gun owners should be subjected to the same amount of oversight as the state’s drivers.
Johnston’s vote to create an official Transgender Day of Remembrance in 2023 came just months before Biden named March 31, 2024 the Transgender Day of Visibility despite the date coinciding with Easter Sunday.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Courtney Johnston” by Courtney Johnston and photo “Trans Flags” by Ted Eytan CC2.0.
