It’s a sad but undeniable truth when it comes to living in America in the 2020s.
Those who most zealously demand “tolerance” of their alternative lifestyles are often some of the most intolerant people around.
Now a Seattle dance crowd was just ‘triggered’ for the most ridiculous reason imaginable.
The Emerald City Hoedown is a Seattle dance convention that was held last weekend.
The Borderline Dance team was invited to the convention for a performance, but things didn’t go as planned after the group showed up.
The organizers, the Rain Country Dance Association (an LGBTQ+ dance community), had been inviting the team to its dance convention for years but the welcoming atmosphere changed drastically when the dance team showed up in American flag shirts.
In a Facebook post, the dance team wrote, “Unfortunately, what our team was met with upon arrival was that our flag tops were offensive to some of the convention goers. There was a small group that felt ‘triggered and unsafe.’”
Lindsay Stamp is a co-captain for her dance group and in an interview on The Jason Rantz Show she said, “The costumes sparked a small percentage of complainants who brought up Israel’s war against Hamas and transgender issues.”
Triggered by American Flags?
She continued, “At first, we were told we would just be booed, yelled at and likely many of them would walk out. This did not deter us. But then we were given an ultimatum. Remove the flag tops and perform in either street clothes (which most didn’t bring as they traveled there in their uniforms) or they would supply us with ECH shirts from years past… Or, don’t perform at all, which effectively was asking us to leave. We don’t speak for our team, we speak on behalf of them so the choice was theirs. As we knew would happen because there really was no choice in our minds, it was a unanimous NO.”
Stamp told Rantz that the team didn’t take a political stance and only wanted to dance.
She added that her group was patriotic and supported the military, veterans, and first responders.
The Borderline Dance team wouldn’t be the only group unexpectedly unable to perform that night.
According to the Facebook post, another group whose outfits were clad in red, white and blue didn’t perform either, for the same reason.
When Fox News asked the Rain Country Dance Association for comment, they did not respond, but the group later addressed the issue on Facebook, saying in a post, “Hi y’all! After the close of another amazing Hoedown weekend, we know there are some questions about the Saturday night performance line-up. We appreciate y’all giving us the time to clear up misunderstandings and address the situation with people directly involved. We will be posting a follow-up statement later this week once we are able to have those conversations.”
Board president: “No one was asked to leave” and “we are mending relationships with dance teams”
Board president Ziadee Cambier commented “To clarify, as this was not a competition, no one was disqualified, and no one was asked to leave. While we are mending our relationships directly with the dance teams we will be disabling comments on this post. We will be sharing more information later this week, to hopefully clear up any misunderstandings.”
But Stamp told Rantz she didn’t believe there was any miscommunication and called for everyone to be “inclusive and accepting of people outside of our immediate comfort zones.”
What looks to have occurred is that the Dance Association is now backpedaling after having been caught doing something that was wildly unpopular with a wider audience.
Hopefully, they and other groups take this as a lesson that inclusivity doesn’t only work one way.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.
