Tennessee pride celebrations showcase queer joy amid neo-Nazi threats, legal attacks
PULASKI, Tenn. — Members of the LGBTQ community and their allies kicked off Pride month here with a common theme: defiance.
No matter the string of anti-gay actions by Tennessee's Republican-controlled state government or threats by avowed neo-Nazis plotting in the shadows. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer residents and their allies celebrated in even some of the state’s deepest red counties while taking heart from a federal court ruling this weekend that struck down the state’s new anti-drag show law as unconstitutional.
Thousands of people streamed into a Pride celebration held at a city-owned horse park Saturday in Franklin, where a tie-breaking vote cast in April by the Tennessee city's mayor proved to be the deciding factor in the event obtaining a municipal permit....