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.