Franklin, Tennessee – After facing opposition and controversy over the past year, the Franklin Pride Festival has finally been granted a permit by the city council. The festival had been mired in controversy after video footage emerged last year showing a live performance that some residents of the conservative community deemed obscene, particularly with young children present. This year, the festival faced further opposition, including an alderman who showed a picture of a drag queen eating a live, bleeding heart at a city council meeting, claiming it was not appropriate for an under-18 audience.
The drag queen in the photo was Venus Ann Serena, a Black drag artist and member of Miss Fits Drag, a frequent performer in nearby Nashville. The group played a family-friendly show at Franklin Pride in 2022, but without the live, bleeding heart. The controversy surrounding the event has been “hard on everybody,” according to one alderman.
Two weeks ago, the Moms of Liberty, an online hate group, overwhelmed a city council meeting set to vote on renewing Franklin Pride’s permit for the festival at a city park on June 3. Emotions ran high the day after a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, with some opponents of the Pride event claiming that it would let Satan in.
Despite the opposition, Pride supporters turned out in force for the most recent council meeting, filling the council chambers and an overflow room, and wearing super-sized rainbow heart stickers. The council ultimately delayed consideration of a proposed Community Decency policy, which critics claimed was targeted towards Pride organizers and overbroad.
Franklin Mayor Ken Moore cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of granting the permit, but not without a stern warning to organizers. Moore stated that if organizers violate the trust placed in them, he would work to ensure that the event never happens in Franklin again. The Pride Festival’s survival is a victory for the LGBTQ community in Franklin amidst ongoing homophobic attacks and controversy.