The fight in Franklin, a city of roughly 85,000 people, echoes earlier battles over LGBTQ acceptance from more than three decades ago and comes in the midst of a nationwide backlash among conservatives against the rights of transgender people to obtain medical care, drag artists to perform in public and LGBTQ people to see themselves reflected in school library books, curricula and the culture at large.
Republicans in state legislatures have introduced a raft of bills targeting LGBTQ rights — an issue that some GOP strategists see as a key to regaining the White House in 2024. Former President Donald Trump launched his re-election campaign with a promise to punish doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors, which he equated with “child sexual mutilation.”
In Tennessee, where a federal judge has temporarily blocked a new law restricting drag performances, these debates have drawn a harsh national spotlight onto the efforts of GOP lawmakers in Nashville, particularly in the days since three children and three adults were gunned down at the Covenant School. The state GOP attracted additional scrutiny last week after Republican lawmakers expelled two Black Democrats from the state House over their protests against gun violence.
In Franklin, the seat of an affluent suburban county where nearly two-thirds of voters cast ballots for Trump in 2020, the heated pride festival backlash surprised some older members of the local LGBTQ community. Even in a conservative, predominantly Christian city, many believed the fights for LGBTQ equality and broad public acceptance had been won years ago.
Tom Rice, a 71-year-old retired art teacher who has owned a home in Franklin for decades, said he believes anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in the area has become more pronounced over the past few years, reaching a fever pitch at the city meeting on March 28.
“I was most concerned with how vicious some of those people were,” Rice said in an interview. “Basically, they think…
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