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| Gabrielle Hanson |
A city alderman in Franklin, Tenn who once opposed a Pride event by falsely accusing a drag queen of biting into a 'live bleeding heart' lost the race for the city's mayoral position Tuesday night.
And by a brutally lopsided margin.
In perhaps the most bizarre race that this picturesque Middle Tennessee community has ever experienced, Franklin voters resoundingly rejected a candidate for mayor who openly embraced white supremacists and Christian nationalism.
Incumbent Mayor Ken Moore easily defeated Gabrielle Hanson, a local real estate developer and first-term city alderman who faced one controversy after another. White supremacists showed up at a candidates forum in a show of support for Hanson, who refused to distance herself from the men despite broad condemnation from fellow aldermen.
Final election results how Moore garnered 12,822 votes (79.4%), compared to Hanson's 3,322 votes (20.6%).
Since getting elected, Hanson used her position to oppose Franklin's LGBTQ + community on numerous occasions including accusing a drag queen of biting into a live heart.
Hanson was voted onto the Franklin City Council two years ago with the backing of the Williamson County chapter of Moms for Liberty. Since then, she’s led a charge backed by Moms for Liberty, harassing the local LGBTQ+ community in often bizarre rants while battling multiple charges of moral hypocrisy.
In April, Hanson tried to shut down the Franklin Pride celebration by sharing photos of a Nashville drag queen, who once performed at the event, biting into “a live bleeding heart,” part of a Halloween-styled act not performed at Pride (nor was the heart “live” or “bleeding”).
“This is something that could have happened in our park!” Hanson declared.
Aside from this, Hanson was embroiled in several other controversies which obviously caused her to lose voter support.
The Franklin alderman became the focus of a series of NewsChannel 5 investigations that began when she lifted social media images to falsely portray support for her campaign, including posting a photo of a diverse group of women who told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that they did not know her and did not support her campaign.
In addition, she angered families associated with Nashville's Covenant School shooting, passing on a bogus conspiracy theory. While she claimed to warned a Franklin police officer in advance of a premonition about an active shooting,
NewsChannel 5 Investigates obtained the officer's bodycam video to prove it never happened. NewsChannel 5 also revealed that Hanson had been arrested for promoting prostitution in Dallas in the mid-90s.
And, despite her opposition to Franklin's Pride festival, we uncovered a photo showing her Speedo-wearing husband at a 2008 Pride parade in Chicago. As the campaign continued, NewsChannel 5 uncovered apparent links between Hanson's campaign and a harassment campaign waged by her white supremacist supporters.
Critics also raised concerns about links between Hanson's campaign and Christian nationalists who want to use politics to impose their faith on others.
And when it came to her white nationalist supporters, Hanson refused to distance herself from them.
The mayoral candidate insisted she didn't see white supremacy in Brad Lewis — the man with the Proud Boys tattoo on his face — or Sean Kauffman, the Hitler-saluting neo-Nazi who's made a habit of protesting local drag shows. NewsChannel 5 Investigates caught up with Kauffmann and Lewis at that candidates' forum.
"He thought we were part of the Proud Boys, isn't that something?" Kauffmann told Lewis.
We noted to Lewis, "Well, you were part of the Proud Boys."
"I was before they turned f***ing qu***," he responded.
Kauffmann chimed in, "Bunch of fa****s."
As a black man, I've never looked at voting as a luxury which I could choose not to do simply because the candidates don't come up to my supposed standards. I feel the same way as a gay man and I wished more Americans in general felt this way.
With voters like the one in this video, can you actually blame me?
Watching this is like watching a five-minute horror movie. It would be hilarious except for the fact that this woman will vote, and it doesn't take a palm reader to tell you who she will vote for. Folks may be insulted by the "you should vote for this guy because the other guy will be an extreme disaster" narrative, but facts are facts.
The Sunshine State was beaming with pride over the weekend as the queer communities of Central Florida brightened the streets of Orlando. Aptly dubbed “Come Out with Pride Orlando,” over 200,000 members of the LGBTQ+ community showed up to the event’s festival and parade to celebrate COWPO’s values of “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.”The debauchery kicked off on Saturday at Eola Park with the annual Come Out with Pride Festival, featuring a marketplace and food vendors, such as Cosmos Ice Cream and La Orengette, to grab a nosh. Embracing their principle of inclusion, the fest offered family-friendly options such as a Youth Zone and the Rainbow Ranch Kids Zone, as well a Sober Space sponsored by Pineapple Health.By the afternoon, RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Monet Exchange and Lala Ri cranked up the heat on the Club Pride Stage. Performances also included local talent such as Darcel Stevens, The Les Vixens, House of Cavalli, House of San Miguel, The Renaissance Theater, and more. One of the missions of COWPO is to champion resistance, which was showcased by members of Orlando’s trans community, who hosted a rally to promote awareness and radically express their fierceness. The centerpiece of the day was the “Most Colorful Parade” presented by AHF, capped off by a grand fireworks finale.
“Being transgender is not about a choice,” Dempsey said while wearing a princess-style gown. “It’s about being true to myself. It’s about embracing who I am even when the world tries to tell me otherwise. It’s about standing tall in my identity even when it’s really hard.”Her mother Jaime Jara, 45, a schoolteacher, beamed beside her on stage. Off stage, she said her youngest child has always known who she was. “She’s just always gravitated toward girl things, girls’ toys. We didn’t have any of that stuff at home. She has two older brothers,” Jaime said. “She’d say, ‘I’m a girl in my heart and my brain.’ She’s been on this journey since she was 5 and she’s living her best life.”
The moral of all of this is that the LGBTQ community does not back down. You may come for us with your lies and hate but we know how to fight and win the hard way. We've been doing it since day one and we are in for the long haul.
SC Pride 2023 was wonderful.
Even after all of the lies you hear about Pride events, it only takes an afternoon spent at one to see the truth. These latest attacks on our culture and lives make us defensive. We get so scared at being accused of awful things that we give up ground when we should be standing firm.
So let me be clear about this - Being an LGBTQ is a blessing. It's not a lifestyle, it's not an abomination.
Kids are not too young to learn about LGBTQ people and families. They will not lose any innocence by simply being aware that we exist. And yes, it should be mentioned in schools. LGBTQ families raising kids exist. LGBTQ kids exist. Those are facts. Normal facts. Children being told these facts won't warp them.
We are a diverse group of people. We come in different shades, forms, nationalities, backgrounds, social groups, etc. etc. We are not going to be confined into closets. We will not have our lives dissected, whittled down, or altered in any way to suit the comfortability of the ignorant. Folks who oppose our lives can believe whatever they want about us, but that does not give them the right to make us believe their lies or live our lives according to their false ideas of who we are. Name-calling will not harm us. Lying about us won't defeat us. Attempting to pass laws against our existence and dignity will only make us stronger.
