Connie Britton Calls Potential Tennessee Legislation ‘Un-American’

Nashville may have to film in its titular city without one of its co-stars if Tennessee passes potential legislation that Connie Britton feels is "un-American."

Gov. Bill Haslam is currently reviewing House Bill 1840, which allows counselors and therapists to deny service to potential clients who they feel would violate their "sincerely held principles." A second bout of legislation, House Bill 2414, has also emerged, which would prevent transgender students from using school bathrooms that correlate with their gender identity. This bill has not yet passed the State or House.

Britton says she would feel uncomfortable shooting in Tennessee should these bills come to fruition.

"It's disturbing and it's unjust,” she tells the Hollywood Reporter. "I shoot a TV show in Tennessee, and honestly, if they proceed with this, I'm not necessarily going to feel comfortable working there."

She adds that though she would hate to interfere with those who are employed by the show within the state, she feels it is important to take a significant stand in order to make a difference and halt the legislation she calls “extremely harmful to everyone."

"Unfortunately a lot of the way that we do that is through the choices we make financially,” she insists.

Britton says the laws do not reflect the warm and inviting environment she’s come to experience in Music City, and she hopes that attitude will win out. "Certainly the environment in Nashville is strong enough and progressive enough that it could support a change in that point of view,” she explains.

Country music is also starting to become a more accepting place for the LGBT community, according to Britton. Though the genre has "traditionally shown a blind eye to the LGBT community,” she says, she thinks it is "starting to change."

Britton plays Rayna James opposite Hayden Panettiere’s Juliette Barnes, two dueling country artists on Nashville.

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