Leave it to Tennessee, whose Republican-run legislature has officially deemed June as “Nuclear Family Month”. The House joint resolution was signed by Governor Bill Lee on April 9. While the policy does not explicitly mention the Queer community, June is when many LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations take place across the country. This is undoubtedly a pointed political act aimed to affirm a conversative moral agenda that excludes many Americans. The resolution defines the nuclear family as “consisting of one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children”. Furthermore, it identifies the nuclear family as “God’s perfect design for humanity” and “the bedrock of society since the creation of the world”. As a sociological concept the nuclear family has been critiqued for decades by queer and feminist activists, social scientists, and other progressives because it is not representative of how many Americans live and build kinship, and yet it has been favored and promoted by legal and political institutions.
June is Now “Nuclear Family Month” (insert eye-roll here!)
