Image Credit: City of Maryville & canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –
Last month, The Tennessee Conservative reported that Blount Pride would have to find a new venue for their Pride festival, after Maryville College officials denied their bid for venue rental.
Now, it seems their secondary location has also fallen through according to social media posts from East Tennessee Conservatives.
Organizers claim they were denied access to the Maryville College venue because the group refused to cancel drag performances scheduled as a part of the event.
However, a statement from the college instead says legal issues, as well as public reaction and safety concerns, regarding last year’s event led to their decision to deny the request.
Maryville allowed the Blount Pride event to be held on their campus in September 2023 in their Clayton Center for the Arts. Fifth Judicial District Attorney General Ryan Desmond sent a letter to event organizers and city officials stating that he was prepared to enforce state law forbidding drag shows.
After the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the event organizers, Maryville College allowed them to use the venue. Protestors flooded the campus, holding signs to promote the law.
The event included a drag queen story time, as well as a speech from Zooey Zephyr, a transgender Democrat representative from Montana.
In regards to this year’s event, Blount Pride’s social media statement on Tuesday said that the college asked them to cancel drag performances that were a part of the event. After a failure to answer questions sent in response by Blount Pride, the college denied their request, according to the post.
Maryville College also released a statement saying that they could not approve the rental contract because of “the College’s ability to deal with the legal ramification and public reaction.”
Sources state that last year’s fiasco cost the college tens of thousands of dollars in legal expenses and many students left campus during the event due to fear of safety conditions in regard to expected protests.
However, reports state that Maryville College has offered to be a sponsor of this year’s event after another venue is secured.
Blount Pride says it has submitted a request to hold the event at Jack Greene Park, where the event was held in 2022, but is awaiting word from the City of Maryville in regards to that application.
They say they “promise to continue to fight to protect all-ages drag performance(s)” and that “drag is a vital part of any pride celebration.”
However, East Tennessee Conservatives have reported on their X feed:
Breaking News!!
ANTI-WOKE VICTORY! We have been tracking the status of the http://blountpride.org application for a “pride” event scheduled for 8/31 at Jack Greene Park in the heart of Maryville.
We inquired again this week with Jane Groff, Administrative Services Director for the city, who kindly informed us, “The applicant has pulled their application and will not be holding the event there on 8/31.”
Interestingly, when you visit the Blount Pride website, there is a link that says it provides information about their court filing through the ACLU. All that is found when you click that link is a page that says, “PAGE NOT FOUND”.
The Tennessee Conservative will update this story as developments occur.
About the Author: Kelly Jackson is an escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers, she has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member. An outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty, Kelly also has a YouTube channel @Tennessee_Truth_Teller and is planning on expanding out to other channels soon. Kelly can be reached at kelly@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
11 Responses
Keep your crazy in California.
Always a good reminder that the ACLU controls Tennessee, not the voters, their elected representatives or the selected judges. All it takes is Hedy threatening to sue….again…..
Take your drag shows to bars if you must have them. Drag shows are not appropriate for children and nothing is going to change my mind. I find it funny (interesting) that Blount Pride is not interested in having their event if drag show and transgender reading story time to children is not going to be allowed. Doesn’t that tell us all we need to know?
“Doesn’t that tell us all we need to know?” EXACTLY. Their sexual grooming and predation of children agenda!
Blount Pride says > “drag is a vital part of any pride celebration.” ???
Why???
SO the reason they have a Pride event is to promote Drag Queens???
At least they are being honest but that is WEIRD!!!
I know LGBQ people but NONE of them are Drag Queens – they live normal lives and are good citizens.
Having Drag Queens as the image of the group is a very BAD idea. It would be like having strippers as the public image of a group.
I would oppose any group whose purpose is to promote half-dressed Strippers teaching kids to be Strippers.
Blount Pride should have their event in a bar or someone’s home.
Why aren’t the City Mayor and the county Mayor out front opposing these events and leaning on the state law that prohibits Drag Shows in front of minors! Kudos to Ryan Desmond, but come on leaders and lead!
A semi-victory.
Over a 175 years ago, Marywille College used to be a headquarters of Abolitionism against slavery during the antebellum period. In the mid-1960’s, it was one of the first white colleges in Tennessee to have a chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society. So, why won’t the college give a permit to hold an LGBT parade? Has the college sold out to the pseudo-Christian group known as the Christian Nationalist, a totalitarian group that owns the Tennessee Republican Party?
Try reading this William.
Romans 1:24-32 NIV
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day
Because the Alphabet Weirdos are all about grooming and touching children.
We all know who you voted for and who you are going to vote for. Just pack your stuff and get out of MY COUNTRY.
#Trump2024 ##SaveAmerica #AmericaFirst ##SaveOurChildren
Thumbs up Mr. Rainey!