BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — Blount Pride held a visibility rally Saturday morning, after not being able to find an official venue to host their annual pride festival.
The organization said roughly 175 people showed up to show support for each other and peacefully rally against laws targeting LGBTQ+ people in Tennessee.
"I wanted to come and be with all my people," said one attendee Orion Mars. "I think it's worth doing."
Counter-protesters also lined the streets across from the rally, holding signs and singing. Several said they felt the issues discussed at the rally targeted young children.
"It's about grooming and indoctrination," said one protester Angie Ewing. "We've had gays and drag queens for decades. Everybody was fine, everybody lived peacefully."
The Southern Poverty Law Center and others have described similar sentiment as anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
Drag was discussed on both sides at the event. Before the Blount Pride festival last year, the District Attorney General said the Tennessee law that bans drag would be enforced if it was present at the event.
Blount Pride filed a lawsuit to try to stop the law from being enforced. That injunction remains in place, so the law couldn't be enforced at this event.
Still, the groups disagreed.
"I'm all for freedom," Ewing said. "But when you start getting kids involved, when you start having these rallies where you're trying to indoctrinate people and recruit people into your army...we won't stand for that."
But the event's organizer, Shannon Bryant, said she wants people to feel safe in town.
"We just want everybody to know that this is a safe place for LGBTQ+ people to be," Bryant said. "If we're banding together, if we're watching each other's backs, we can and will have a safe Blount county for LGBTQ+ people."