The Tennessee Legislature is moving against Nashville's newly-approved gay protections ordinance.

On Tuesday, the governing body of the City of Nashville and Davidson County, which merged in 1963, narrowly approved a plan to extend the city's gay protections to contractors, joining more than 100 communities across the nation.

The 2009 law bans employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (transgender protections).

The fight to outlaw Nashville and other municipalities from enacting such laws was taking shape before the city council acted.

On Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Nashville adopted its ordinance, the House Commerce Subcommittee unanimously voted in favor of a bill that would strip the state of all gay protections laws.

The subcommittee had previously opposed House bill 600, which would ban cities from enacting their own policies on minimum wages, health care, family leave and discrimination.

The bill approved on Wednesday narrowed its focus to banning gay protections policies.

“The broader bill created a lot of confusion as to what all it was doing,” David Fowler, president of the Christian conservative Family Action Council of Tennessee, told Nashville alternative weekly the Nashville City Paper. “Anytime you have a bill with three or four moving pieces and parts, it becomes harder for people to understand. So we narrowed it down to one issue.”

In a video in support of the legislation produced by the group, a gruff-looking man is seen following a young girl into a playground restroom.

“Do gender differences matter to you? They won't if Memphis or Shelby County mandates 'gender expression' policies on private employers. Is that the kind of Tennessee you want?” the video states. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.)

Fowler defended the ad, saying the law would make it “easy for real sexual predators to take advantage of that situation.”

“It's not any kind of statement that those who are transgender or cross dress are sexual predators,” he added. “It's that sexual predators will know how to take advantage of those opportunities afforded by law when the distinctions begin to get blurred with respect [to] who's righfully or not in a restroom.”

The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Glen Casada, now heads to the House Commerce Committee.