Dollywood's gay T-shirt controversy (Salon)
Parton apologizes after the park stops a patron for her shirt. But should some ideas not be printed on your chest?
A controversial incident at Dolly Parton's Tennessee theme park has raised a variety of important questions: Does the right to freedom of speech apply to your chest? Is a tame joke about same-sex unions a "controversial" stance? And who knew that Dollywood had a "strict dress policy"?
When Olivier Odom headed into Dollywood's Splash Country last month with her wife and a friend's children, she was dressed in casual theme park attire -- including a T-shirt that cheekily pronounced "Marriage is so gay." But she was stopped at the gate by an attendant who told her she had to turn the shirt inside-out if she wanted admittance. As Dollywood PR manager Pete Owens explained to The Advocate, "Thousands of times a day our front-gate hosts are asked to enforce our dress code policy. It doesn't have anything to do with who the people are or what their belief system is ... (W)e try to prevent as best as we can upon entry of the park one of our guests being offended by something someone else is wearing."
That's a pretty tall order. You hope not even one guest will be "offended" by what someone else is wearing? Unless Dollywood has a strict "no jeggings or Boston Red Sox paraphernalia" policy, I'm pretty sure I could go there and find some umbrage for the taking.
Complete article at Salon : http://bit.ly/oYfiPZ
