Nashville Pride Political Report

Despite the rain and wind, 2011 will go down as another great year for Nashville Pride. Congratulations to the organizers for putting together a great festival.

It was a good day for politics, too. We used the TEP booth to get word out about our TEP PAC endorsed candidates for Metro races. Among our endorsed candidates who attended were Council Members At-Large Ronnie Steine and Megan Barry, Mayor Karl Dean and District 19 Council Member Erica Gilmore who both spoke from the main stage, and District 6 candidate Peter Westerholm and District 18 candidate David Glasgow. There may have been others and I'm sorry if I missed anyone. By the way, it was also great to see the Davidson County Democratic Women and the Davidson County Young Democrats out at Pride.

There was concern about HB600 and Don't Say Gay among some of those attending, but we did our best to make the case that we can continue to fight back in the face of a Legislature bent of putting discrimination into law. There's never been a more important time to do so.

-Chris Sanders

Nashville Pride Political Roundup

Despite the heat, thousands turned out for Nashville Pride today. Channel 5 offered some coverage. The Tennessean's coverage was more political with several folks interviewed talking about the 2009 Metro non-discrimination ordinance, the Don't Say Gay bill, and the birth certificate bill.

It was a good day for politicking. State Representative Mike Stewart was making the rounds. Candidate for State House district 58 Steven Turner and candidate for State Senate district 21 Jeff Yarbro were busy engaging voters. Newly announced candidate for Metro Council district 6 Pete Westerholm (an outgoing TEP board member) was busy working the TEP table and meeting people. I was pleased to see that the Tennessee Democratic Party also had a table busy with volunteers.

Volunteers at the TEP table registered voters, surveyed festival goers about discrimination, and increased awareness of the upcoming State Primary. All in all, it was a great day to build the movement for equality.

TEP at Nashville Pride

Thanks to Nancy VanReece for the photo. By the time I left, we had already signed up over 75 people for the email list. There is lots of enthusiasm for a non-discrimination ordinance for Nashville. Maybe most straight people, even those who would allies, don't realize it, but we don't have any employment protections in Tennessee unless an employer chooses to put sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in its policy. We hope Metro government will add these categories to its non-discrimination policy.

A big thanks to all our volunteers who are working the booth.

Nashville Pride Coverage: More acceptance but few protections

Claudio Pinto writes up Nashville Pride for the Tennessean this morning. The piece focuses on GLBT people--young and old--and their perceptions of how Nashville has changed.

But times have changed enough that Joshua Hargrove, 29, thinks being gay in Nashville today is no big deal."A couple of times, I've had people I work with tell me a story about a gay couple they know. And that's their way of saying, 'Hey, we know you're gay and we're OK with that,' " said Hargrove, who works in the Nashville public schools' IT department.

And I think that's largely true. I was glad, however, that the piece pointed out the state legislative framework in which even progressive Nashville exists:

Tennessee is still no bastion for gays and lesbians. They don't have the right to marry here, and there's no legal recourse for those who are fired because of their sexuality.

Exactly right. There are no employment protections in Tennessee based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Unless you work for the UT system, Metro Nashville Public Schools, a Tennessee Board of Regents school, a private employer who offers protections, or Shelby County government now, there are no protections. This is exactly why the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act is important and it's exactly why TEP is advocating an inclusive non-discrimination policy for Metro Nashville government employees. Getting employers to protect GLBT employees is basic to our economic security.

Straight ally explains why...

...she and her husband attended Pride this year and support the GLBT community in today's City Paper letters.

Our decision to attend Pride was because we support and love our friends and because PRIDE is an important event to them, PRIDE has become an important event to us! While we weren’t too sure of what to expect, what we experienced was a time of love and friendship with no worries of criticism or gawking because you want to hold your partner’s hand.

Another Pride winding down

The Tennessean ran this piece about Saturday's Family Day event, which is part of the Nashville Pride celebration. Several of those in attendance were interviewed about their reactions to California Supreme Court's decision to recognize marriage rights for same-sex couples.

The main celebration took place in Centennial Park today where several organizations and businesses had set up booths. I was pleased to see Dell represented there. It's always a good opportunity to sign up new members for your group. TEP recruited several new members, surveyed over 250 on hate crimes incidents, and even registered about 40 voters. The overwhelming majority of people who stopped by our booth had already taken care of their registration or change of address prior to the Tennessee presidential primary and are eager to vote in November.

Mike Stewart, Democratic candidate for State House District 52, stopped by the TEP booth to talk for a few minutes. He had been campaigning door-to-door yesterday in the Green Hills portion of his district. I didn't happen to see any other candidates out in the park, but I wasn't exactly looking too hard.

The best part of Pride is seeing people you haven't seen in about a year. It's like a family reunion. The mood was upbeat as people from all over Middle Tennessee got reconnected.