Tennessee Pride celebration crowd doubles amid anti-drag threats: report

Threats against organizers of a Tennessee Pride festival apparently didn’t do much to deter visitors from attending the annual event.

The Blount County Pride festival in Marysville doubled its 2022 attendance despite threats from Ryan Desmond, the county’s District Attorney, who said he would prosecute organizers of the event if they violated a defunct anti-drag law, The Daily Beast reports.

A federal judge in response to a last-minute American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit ruled in favor of the Pride organizers in response to Desmond’s threats, the report said.

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Tennessee lawmakers in March passed an anti-drag law that was the basis of the threats, according to the report, which notes that the Tennessee Adult Entertainment Act classified drag performances as ‘adult cabaret entertainment’ and banned such performances in public spaces or where they could be viewed by minors.

The law was the subject of an ongoing dispute after Tennessee officials challenged a June ruling by a federal judge who issued an injunction against it, the report said.

Local authorities had threatened organizers but the federal judge in response to the ACLU lawsuit blocked police from prosecuting anyone involved in the event.

But the event was welcomed by all with open arms.

Kelly Weill writes for The Beast that “Even without threat of prosecution, Blount Pride still faced opposition from anti-LGBT demonstrators, who stood outside the event. Footage showed demonstrators waving anti-gay signs and holding a large wooden cross.”

Read the article here.