(The Lion) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill into law Thursday declaring June 2026 as “Nuclear Family Month,” replacing “Pride Month” in the state’s official recognitions.
Sponsored by Rep. Bud Hulsey, R-Kingsport, and backed by 15 GOP co-sponsors, the measure took nearly a year to move through the Tennessee Legislature. It passed the House 72–18 in April 2025 and was taken up by the Senate this year, where it was passed 26–4 in March. The bill returned to the House for final concurrence, and Lee signed it two days after it reached his desk.
The resolution defines the nuclear family as “one husband, one wife, and any biological, adopted, or fostered children,” describing it as “God’s design for familial structure” and “the bedrock of society since the creation of the world.”
The measure was co-authored by Rachel Mehl and Lakie Derrick, who said the idea was inspired by a similar celebration in Italy. “If Italy can do it, why can’t Tennessee?” Derrick told the Lion, adding that she felt called to pursue the resolution and worked with Mehl to draft it. The pair said their generation has witnessed “the attack on the nuclear family” and sought to advance what they describe as a biblical model of family life.
It further contrasts Tennessee’s values with what it calls “humanistic, globalist ideologies” promoted by organizations such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations, while affirming that “the nuclear family is God’s perfect design for humanity.”
The resolution also highlighted the role of both parents in the home, emphasizing the effects of fatherlessness. It cites data indicating children in fatherless homes face significantly higher risks of poverty, substance abuse, mental health challenges, school dropout, incarceration, and suicide, and notes that a majority of school shooters studied were raised in unstable or non-intact family environments.
“In a 2016 study by Peter Langman on the psychology behind fifty-six school shooters, eighty-two percent of the shooters were raised in an unstable family environment or without both biological parents together,” stated the resolution.
Several LGBTQ groups across Tennessee condemned the resolution, arguing it could marginalize families that do not fit the traditional model.
“Resolutions like this do more to reveal the cluelessness of elected officials whose own families and those of their constituents have various family dynamics and structures,” a spokesperson for GLAAD told the Advocate.
The resolution signals a broader cultural push to reassert the definition of the nuclear family as one man and one woman, even as critics continue to challenge it.
