NASHVILLE, TN – Conservative Christian activist David Fowler, president of the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), says his group will support legislation to discourage student bullying, but that they oppose creating a special sub-class for LGBT victims.

In the organization’s December newsletter Fowler said that any anti-bullying measure must protect “the religious liberty and free speech rights of students who want to express their views on homosexuality.”

In an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Fowler insisted that “the purpose is to stop bullying, not create special classes of people who are more important than others.”

Fowler, a former Republican state senator, said LGBT students are “not the only people who get insulted.

The thing we need to concentrate on is not whether the characteristics of the victim justify being protected but on the conduct of the person engaging in the bullying while respecting constitutional rights.”

That does not sit well with the Tennessee Equality Project, which says that legislation that lacks protections for gay and transgender students would lack teeth, and extend a “license to bully” to students who might claim a religious exemption.