TN Aquarium Sponsors Booth at Chattanooga’s Upcoming Pride Festival, Recruits Employee Volunteers

Image Credit: Jeff Gunn / CC; Patriots Engage Chattanooga; Tennessee Aquarium

The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –

The Tennessee Aquarium has been confirmed as an official sponsor of this year’s Chattanooga Pride Festival taking place this Sunday, October 8^th. 

A flyer requesting volunteer support for the festival from aquarium employees reads, “We are excited that the Tennessee Aquarium is an Official Sponsor of Chattanooga Pride this year!”

The aquarium’s sponsorship package includes a spot in the parade, a booth at the Chattanooga Convention Center for the festival, and a sponsor logo displayed on the Chattanooga Pride website.

Urging support of the Chattanooga Pride Festival, the flyer goes on to state that volunteers can sign up to either help work the aquarium’s booth or walk in the pride parade “as a team.”

According to this flyer, booth activities will include “crafts, trivia/prize wheel, sticker give aways, and Queer Animal facts.”

Employees working the booth are required to wear their aquarium uniforms, however those signed up to walk in the parade are instructed to “dress festively” and “have fun.”

“Partners, families, and allies are welcome to join! We would love to show out with a big group for our first Pride!” the flyer continues.

On Tuesday, Patriots Engage Chattanooga shared a copy of the document to their social media and called out the Tennessee Aquarium saying, “They are abusing their mission as conservationist along with their fiduciary responsibility as stewards of donors monies in an attempt to push a psychosomatic perversion agenda onto kids and the community.”

Additionally, Patriots Engage encouraged others to cancel their aquarium memberships and cut off ongoing sponsorship of any organization conducting similar activities.

“The @TNAquarium is sponsoring and supporting the GROOMING of kids,” read their Twitter/X post.

On Wednesday, Tennessee Aquarium Communications Manager Thom Benson confirmed sponsorship of the upcoming pride event.

“I think, you know, when we look at the community as a whole, we want to be welcoming and open to everyone,” Mr. Benson told The Tennessee Conservative, “and when you look at healthy communities and healthy ecosystems, it really takes everybody working together to have a community that works well together.”

According to Mr. Benson, the aquarium is participating in Chattanooga’s LGBTQ+ festivities to make sure that they are getting involved with every subsect of their local community as well as to ensure that they are getting out information to as many people as possible, on what needs to be done to protect nature and the environment.

“Today more than ever, nature really needs our help and having the opportunity to reach audience segments from all walks of life, is important to helping people understand the challenges that the environment and nature face, and the ways that we can all work together to improve the environmental health and wellbeing of our communities,” stated Mr. Benson. 

“Again, everybody needs to work together to improve the natural resources that we have in our backyard,” he added. 

About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.