Tennessee legislators, Representative Brenda Gilmore and Senator Jeff Yarbro have introduced a bill that works to protect artists and professionals who work in the music industry. The situation began in the Nashville community where there is a struggle in how to respond to the climate of sexual harassment and misconduct in country radio, specifically the workshops at the Country Radio Seminar, and tweets from Kacey Musgraves and Maren Morris.

HB 1984/SB 2130 is a bill that would offer full time employee rights to those in the music industry who are unable to register complaints if they experience any type of harassment. Senator Yarbro adds the note “There’s been significant reporting recently that shows that in some cases, female artists face a lot of predatory behavior just for trying to have their music heard.” The support for the bill has been raised from artists such as Rodney Crowell, Lilly Hiatt, Andrew Combs, Katie Armiger and Lorrie Morgan.

According to Rolling Stone, Senator Yarbro has stated “There’s been significant reporting recently that shows that in some cases, female artists face a lot of predatory behavior just for trying to have their music heard. From what we’ve learned, if you’re a female artist, harassment is something you learn to expect as you try to promote your work. That’s unacceptable, and it’s a problem we should try to solve. We know the music industry isn’t a traditional workplace, so a lot of the ways we report harassment in traditional workplaces won’t work. The legislation that Rep. Gilmore and I have proposed just makes it clear that everyone has a right to be safe in the workplace, regardless of whether their job fits the formalities of the current law.”