Rhea County Pride Day Letters
The
Chattanoogan, April 17, 2004
Chattanooga, TN
Fax: 423-821-8475
Letter: Rhea Gay Day Event Organizers Caved In
Well now, after all the commotion, the Rhea County Gay
Day planners decide to move the event to Dayton City Point Park. Now talk
about woosies.
Although the uprising was not asked for but it called for
it, and now the planners want to be wussies about the parade upon the court
steps.
Please, guys and gals, what a decision....to be a pansy
or not. That is all up to you, but I gotta tell you—thousands of folks (gay
and straight) have made arrangements...hours out of their day to be there.
Just to be pushed to the side.
Being a gay American, if you ain’t got the nerve, then
let those of us that do take control.
– Roger Brian Jenkins
Chattanooga
rjenterprise@comcast.net
Letter: Rhea County Gay Day Group Faced Violence
There are a number of issues that have not been addressed
publicly. We as well as the Dayton officials received a huge number of threats
of violence.
There are only 14 police offers available to provide us
with protection. We have 2,500+ people coming to this event. They could not
protect us in the city because there were too many entrances to cover and no
weapon laws in place.
June Griffin has been on the radio all week advocating
violence against us. We have organized hate groups busing people in from all
over America.
We had no choice but to move the event to the city park
where we can be better protected. They would not issue a permit for the parade
because 14 officers could not protect us inside the city.
We could have pressed the issue. We had an attorney from
Lambda Legal who worked on our behalf, and after reviewing the information
everyone involved agreed that public safety had to come first and the event
had to be moved to the park.
The police are going to keep the protesters out of the
park. Weapons are prohibited from the park. We have been given complete
authority to have the police remove anyone from the park who causes problems.
– Rhea County Gay Day Organizers
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