NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — State Rep. Glen Casada says local governments should not have a patchwork of policies toward businesses.

Casada (R-College Grove) told The Tennessean he hopes to file a bill next week that would prevent cities and counties, including Metro Nashville, from extending policies on hiring gay employees to companies they contract with.

"It'll say that local governments don't have the option of requiring the business community to perform certain social functions," he said. "We're putting so many requirements on businesses that we're making them be the social police of the community. That's not their role."

The newspaper reported Casada and a few dozen fellow conservatives met Wednesday to talk strategy against a local ordinance proposal the Metro Nashville Council is scheduled to discuss next week.

The proposal to be considered by the city legislative body would require companies doing work with Nashville government to sign an affidavit stating they won't discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

City contractors already must pledge to not discriminate because of age, race, sex, color, national origin or disability.

Metro Council member Mike Jameson, a co-sponsor of the proposal to extend city policy to contractors, said in an e-mail to the newspaper the measure would not interfere with an individual's beliefs.

Jameson continued, "But in those limited instances where a company wants to enter into a contract with the city and to make money from the city, the legislation simply asks that they comply with policies the city adopted a year and a half ago."

That policy bars discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgendered employees.

The proposal comes after a lesbian soccer coach left Belmont University under clouded circumstances after revealing that her domestic partner is pregnant. Members of the soccer team said Lisa Howe was forced to resign. Belmont officials said the coach's departure was a "mutual decision."

Casada represents House District 63, which lies primarily in Williamson County, just south of Nashville.