Gay couple asked to reverse shirt at Dollywood

[Coasterkidmwm]

Tell your kids it means happy, problem solved.

Anyone it offends is a bigot.

lol, I feel really bad for any kids you may have in your lifetime.

Funny though, just realized you're comments on this site have the same intention as that couple...to stir up controversy. Maybe, in the future, try and make it less obvious you're trying your hardest to be a jerk. Might even convince me to make the conversion from constantly laughing at you, to occasionally laughing with you.

Coasterkid, why do you feel as though you have to be a Devil's Advocate for this topic? You, and everyone else understands what is meant by the shirt. In addition, if a shirt has to have an excuse attached to it, (IE: "It means happy"), then just wear a different shirt to a public place.
The couple didn't have to flaunt their orientation.

Abiding a dress code at a family theme park is a non-issue. If the shirt could stir up any controversy between guests at the park, it should not be allowed. A shirt like that at a place like Dollywood is obviously likely to stir up some crap with some guests. The worker who told the woman to turn her shirt inside out might have been a homophobic, or a bigot, but she may have inadvertently ceased a possible outlash toward the woman wearing the shirt from a park go-er who felt negatively towards it.

I mean, to be honest, freedom of speech is great, but a shirt like that is only meant to throw your point of view in everyone's face, and when a shirt does that, people will respond, be it positively or negatively. Any sort of negative response is what Dollywood is avoiding. I have a faith that if a guest had a shirt claiming "marriage isn't for fags" they would have told the person wearing that to reverse it/leave the park. At least, maybe not until someone complained, but the nontheless, it would have been done.

It is unfortunate that we live in a world where all people from all walks of life arent accepted but you cant do anything about that. And avoiding problems is probably the best thing to do on Dollywood's part. They don't want to lose any customers so they're remaining as neutral as possible.

My issue is this. the GLBT crowd wants people to stop using the word "gay" pretty much all together. That's fine, I never used it much at all anyways.

But then DO NOT wear shirts using the word in a way that COULD be mistaken for the same way you want us to stop using it. If you need to "explain" what the shirt means, then it fails. I dont even know what to make of "marriage is so gay" because its so vague. Thats called hypocrisy in my book.


So apart from them not abiding by park rules, there's the whole "You want people to stop using the word in vague/derogatory ways, so, don't use it that way yourselves" thing goin on.



As SNJ said, they wore it to stir up trouble. You cannot wear something like that (never mind in the bible belt of Tennessee, but ANYwhere) and then cry about it when asked to turn it inside out or cover it.

lol, I like how "gay" is following the same path as "n*****" so that it's like how it's only "OK" for black people to use the word. Well... now it will be that gay people can only use "gay"...

That's just plain retarded.

My opinion: The woman was stupid to wear such a ridiculous shirt that would have only attracted negative attention at a family-friendly theme park. However, if I saw someone wearing a shirt that promoted ANYTHING like that, I would alert an employee about it too...

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by Real


As SNJ said, they wore it to stir up trouble. You cannot wear something like that (never mind in the bible belt of Tennessee, but ANYwhere) and then cry about it when asked to turn it inside out or cover it.

I'm still failing to see the big deal. If your kids or whatever asks a question all you need to do is tell them it means happy (It can mean happy). I'm aware of the intent behind the problem and everything, I just feel it's really really really easy to ignore it unless you have an underlying hatred that is preventing you from doing so.

If there is a picture of two women majorly tongue dueling or something on it I can see that as a major problem, but if it's just text I don't particularly see why anyone would care unless there is something under the surface they're refusing to acknowledge.

Originally posted by dcs221

lol, I feel really bad for any kids you may have in your lifetime.

Funny though, just realized you're comments on this site have the same intention as that couple...to stir up controversy. Maybe, in the future, try and make it less obvious you're trying your hardest to be a jerk.

If I was trying my hardest to be a jerk you'd be well aware of it.

Originally posted by rcking04

lol, I like how "gay" is following the same path as "n*****" so that it's like how it's only "OK" for black people to use the word. Well... now it will be that gay people can only use "gay"...

Except that's a stupid fat white person argument because pretty much every 6th grader to freshman in high school aged person describes everything bad as "that's gay" whereas I'm willing to bet a significantly smaller amount of people run around calling people niggers. Even if the entire black population of the United States did that (Protip if you live in a rich suburban neighborhood in California or a town in the Bible Belt with less than 10k people in it: THEY DON'T) it would still be much less than the 6th-9th grade population.

EDIT: Every college aged person I know who describes something as "gay" when they mean "bad" is in a church group. Just saying.

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

Except that's a stupid fat white person argument because pretty much every 6th grader to freshman in high school aged person describes everything bad as "that's gay" whereas I'm willing to bet a significantly smaller amount of people run around calling people niggers. Even if the entire black population of the United States did that (Protip if you live in a rich suburban neighborhood in California or a town in the Bible Belt with less than 10k people in it: THEY DON'T) it would still be much less than the 6th-9th grade population.

EDIT: Every college aged person I know who describes something as "gay" when they mean "bad" is in a church group. Just saying.

Depends on where you went to school. I went to a high school in the ghetto. Besides the fact that almost none of the black people who went there gave a damn about his/her education, the word "n*****" was the most common word used by the majority of them. Believe me, all of the teachers I had who've taught both IB/standard education classes all complain that the black kids in the standard classes never did any work, showed up late constantly, and/or slept all through class.

I realized that I never finished where I was going with that "gay/n*****" argument. Basically, I think that's not true at all. "gay" will never follow the same path as the word "n*****".

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by rcking04 in 1st post...

lol, I like how "gay" is following the same path as "n*****" so that it's like how it's only "OK" for black people to use the word. Well... now it will be that gay people can only use "gay"...

Mmmkay

Originally posted by rcking04 in 2nd post...
I realized that I never finished where I was going with that "gay/n*****" argument. Basically, I think that's not true at all. "gay" will never follow the same path as the word "n*****".

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Are you a politician?

CKW, its not the word I'm concerned with or kids. That's up to the parents to decide how they teach. Im talking about the hypocrisy with GLBT being offended by people using the word gay and then them using it themselves. I am not a fan of that dynamic. Practice what ya preach.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Like Christians saying they love everyone when they clearly don't? Same hypocrisy.

[jayman]

they discriminated against a tshirt, not the people wearing it . id have a problem if they'd been kicked out for being gay

[mkingy]

Originally posted by jayman

they discriminated against a tshirt, not the people wearing it . id have a problem if they'd been kicked out for being gay

This.

Ummmm since when do Gay people have a problem with being called gay? Or the use of the word gay? I'm gay and i really don't give a crap who says "thats so gay" or anything like that around me, and anyone who does is a sensitive idiot. Its political correctness gone too far, and it is the minority of the LGBT community that actually want people to stop using the word in a negative way. Its like when people said we're not allowed to sing "baa baa black sheep anymore" - barely anyone was actually offended by it, but the minority who are scream up a fuss and give a bad name to the rest.

But to be honest i agree with coasterkid. I have a t-shirt that says "Legalise gay: repeal proposition 8" on it - I honestly don't see how thats a problem. And i don't see how this ladies t-shirt was offensive either. God i see straight people walking around in crude t shirts all the time in theme parks and no one bats an eyelid. I know its not the parks fault, and they were just trying to keep themselves out of trouble, but to be honest, if someone takes offence to something like this - its them with the problem. They are the biggot.

[gouldy]

Mkingy? jpecool? This a reunion?!

People seem to be so easily offended these days, it's a t-shirt - chill out!

It's a little annoying to think of what people are offended by these days, especially when you consider what people aren't offended by (or have to pretend not to be offended by).

I'm hugely offended by the fact that a Muslim woman is forced to wear a burkha by her cult, but not only that; not then forced to take OFF the burkha when entering a shopping complex or other public space, and yet I cannot so much as look at a hooded sweatshirt in the same public place.

I'm hugely offended by the fact that Sikh males are allowed, purely because it says so in their religious scripture, to carry around a dagger (between the sizes of 3 inches and 3 feet) in any public place and into places like the Olympics. Even teenage Sikh males are allowed to "wear" their daggers in school. And yet, if I were to turn up at school with a f*cking 2ft "dagger", I'm pretty sure I'd be arrested faster than you could even say Double Standards.

I realise this incident wasn't in the UK, but as far as human/civil rights go - for people to offended by some of the things that they are offended by and not be offended by much much worse offences... it's just... the mind boggles.

[mkingy]

Originally posted by gouldy

Mkingy? jpecool? This a reunion?!

Yeah, didn't you get the memo? haha

Double standards are frustrating, I'll agree with you there.

I don't see how that t-shirt might have been offending?
Someone please elaborate...

Originally posted by mkingy

Originally posted by gouldy

Mkingy? jpecool? This a reunion?!

Yeah, didn't you get the memo? haha

Haha

I do check the site still, not as much as i used to do, i just rarely offer my input anymore.

I don't see how that t-shirt might have been offending?
Someone please elaborate...

exactly Vid. Its about as offensive as someone wearing a crucifix. Everyones entitled to their beliefs and opinions, its just a shame that some people think their beliefs are more important than others....

[Coasterkidmwm]

Originally posted by Real

Im talking about the hypocrisy with GLBT being offended by people using the word gay and then them using it themselves.

Does this actually happen or did a preacher invent it like they invent other events (sharia law taking over the USA)? I hang around a fairly liberal bunch and have to deal with a fair amount of idiots and I've NEVER heard this before. I'd really expect to hear it from the idiots, but all I ever heard from them was that the church group saying gay people are "real uppity and close minded" (lolz), and I get the occasional extreme leftist derp derp on top of that from the other spectrum. It seems like this "they use the word all the time" business is a lame excuse for bigots to justify hate speech.