Image Credit: ChattPride / Instagram
The Tennessee Conservative [By Olivia Lupia] –
The Chattanooga Pride Festival, managed by Tennessee Valley Pride, begins September 26th with a range of activities and events each day culminating in the Pride Parade on October 6th, supposedly held in the fall in honor of LGBT history month and for the cooler temperatures.
Despite Tennessee’s law prohibiting adult cabaret performances where minors may be present or on public property, the festival’s schedule of events only lists two as either 18+ or 21+.
The Pride site specifically provides a registration form for artists and entertainers, including drag performers, and several photographs from other promotional materials and websites include children, promising “plenty of family-friendly events in the lineup,” but no disclaimers or information regarding any specific drag performances or age requirements.
Other Pride organizations consider all-age drag performances to be “vital” and Chattanooga Pride seems to concur as the board “embraces and encourages our community’s differences in age,” in their Diversity Statement.
The board also boasts a statement opposing Tennessee laws geared at protecting children which states their concern that such legislation may “threaten to remove trans’ youths rights to privacy and their ability to live authentically,” denoting a lack of regard for Tennessee’s legal stance on LGBT and transgender agendas regarding minors.
Ironically, in the organization’s Sexual Misconduct policy, sexual harassment is defined as “such things as pinching, patting, rubbing, or leering, “dirty” jokes, pictures or pornographic materials, comments, suggestions, innuendoes, requests, or demands of a sexual nature,” yet there seems to be no stated interest in regulation for the festival events, attendees, or performers.
The statement continues, “All harassment is offensive; it will not be tolerated within our board or the community at large.”
But Chattanooga residents should not look to their representatives in the District Attorney’s office to uphold the laws as last year, Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp not only disregarded citizen concerns but issued a statement confirming her office had no concern for the festival.
With such vague descriptors on the website, it is impossible to say for certain if the festival events will flagrantly disobey Tennessee law, but the advertising, organizational statements and stances, and poor track record of city officials in performing their duties seem to suggest little concern for any consequences should Chattanooga Pride choose not to comply.
Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
3 Responses
What’s wrong with Chattanooga? My guess is that the problem is that very few conservatives vote.
Serious question > Why do gay people want to be “identified” by Drag Queens (men who dress as women and act like strippers)? I have gay people in my family and none are Drag Queens and they wouldn’t take their kids to see Drag Queens. And there are at least 4 on Fox and they all agree that teaching kids to be Drag Queens is a bad idea.
Any teenage girl can take a portable stereo system into any public space, dance and sing along with Lady Gaga songs, and few people would give it a second thought. But if someone does EXACTLY THE SAME THING while dressed in a big wig, sequined gown, and extravagant makeup, you would have them arrested? There is no constitutional justification for this double standard. You can’t criminalize someone for how they’re dressed. And how do you draw the line between a drag queen who is riding on a float in a pride parade, waving to the crowd, and a drag queen who is onstage, lip-syncing to Beyonce?
Lucifer’s dimmercrap cities, cancers on the face of God’s green earth.