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City leaders in Franklin, Tennessee, voted on Tuesday to renew a permit for the city's annual Pride festival scheduled for June despite pushback from some community members.
The permit was granted in a 5-4 decision, with Franklin Mayor Ken Moore casting the tie-breaking vote.
Franklin Pride has taken place over the last two years in the Nashville suburb, but resistance to the event renewing its permit for the 2023 season arose during a city hall public forum in late last month. According to NBC News, a handful of community members had pleaded with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) to block the event's permit, claiming that Pride festivals are intended to "groom" children. City leaders voted to postpone a vote on the permit until a decision was reached on a decency resolution.
Prior to Tuesday's vote, Franklin City Hall was again filled with dozens of community members, many of whom used passages from the Bible to urge the BOMA to vote against the Franklin Pride permit. Other residents said they believed the event should take place in a private venue since it was "sexual" in nature, and that last year's Pride festival had violated community standards for minors who were in attendance.
A handful of people in support of Franklin Pride were also in the crowd, including the event's president, Clayton Klutts, who said that many of the festival's detractors "were not in attendance" during last year's event. Klutts added that "they have somehow reimagined it to be a very different event than what was actually held."
"As you consider our application, I encourage you to listen to the voices of the people who were there and vote to approve our application," Klutts told the city board.
Newsweek has reached out to Franklin Pride via email for additional comment.
Moore said during his final remarks that he was voting in favor of the Pride event to give a "lifeline" to the festival, but warned it would be under tight scrutiny to ensure it complies with public decency standards.
"If you violate our trust of this board, I will work as hard, and I'm sure this board will join me in working very hard, to make sure that event never occurs," Moore said.
City leaders also debated a new set of guidelines for "community decency" on Tuesday, but elected to defer a final vote on the resolution pending proposed amendments. The bill would prohibit groups that are found in violation of behavior "not consistent with generally accepted standards" from using public city spaces for two years before they are allowed to reapply for permits.
If passed, the decency resolution could be used to prohibit future Pride events if the festivals are found in violation of community standards.
Tuesday's vote follows a recent trend in GOP-led state legislatures targeting LGBTQ+ communities. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed two bills into law last month that prohibited gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 18 and banned drag shows from public spaces.
This month, Kansas became the 20th state to ban transgender athletes from participating in women's and girls' sporting competitions, claiming that it poses an unfair advantage over biological females. Democratic Governor Laura Kelly had vetoed the bill three years in a row before the GOP-controlled legislature garnered enough votes to overturn the veto.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there have been 452 bills introduced in state and local legislatures in the 2023 legislative session that target the LGBTQ+ community.
About the writer
Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more