A bill that would have allowed officials in Tennessee to refuse to conduct a marriage ceremony based on their “conscience or religious beliefs” did not become law this year, and a trial is set for this summer to decide the fate of marriages performed by ministers who were ordained online.
Tennessee state Rep. Monty Fritts (R-Kingston) sponsored the legislation and called it “a freedom bill” to protect the rights of officiants at wedding ceremonies. During a debate on the House floor last month, Fritts admitted he was not aware of anyone in the state who had been forced to solemnize a wedding. He called that point “irrelevant” and said it was, instead, important to incorporate the right to refuse to perform wedding ceremonies into Tennessee state law.
LGBTQ advocates worried that the bill would officially limit couples’ access to marriage in the state. The bill was written broadly and advocates were concerned that it would allow county clerks or or other government officials to deny marriages to LGBTQ+ couples.
This idea gained national attention in 2015, when Kim Clark, a Kentucky county clerk, refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing personal beliefs. Davis was, ultimately, protected from litigation in her official capacity but a jury is set to decide this summer what damages she may personally owe to a couple, according to WKYT.
Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) said the legislation, and other bills of a similar nature, are based in hypotheses and take up pointless time and energy in the Tennessee General Assembly.
“… This type of legislation is harmful not only in its practice, but in the messages that it is sending about who has rights in our cities, in our state, and in our country,” Pearson said. “By doing this, it is helping to fuel people who do not care for inclusion, who do not care for love, and people loving whoever it is that they choose to love — that God’s given them the ability to love. … Instead it is trying to support a vision, a perspective of people who would like to see other folks subjugated, dejected, and rejected.”
The bill passed a full House vote after speeding through the committee process in just over a month. However, it was postponed for consideration until next year in its first consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The bill’s failure may mark a bright spot on the legislative session for LGBTQ+ advocates. But its power is dimmed amid several other bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a bills to ban drag shows and to outlaw gender-affirming care for trans youth.
”The Tennessee House of Representatives continues to be one of the most dangerous legislative chambers in the country for LGBTQ+ people,” Tennessee Equality Project executive director Chris Sanders said in a statement. “They have ignored constituents in their offices, phone calls, and compelling committee testimony. It is time they became the People’s House again.”
Meanwhile, the Universal Life Church (ULC) said a lawsuit that would allow online-ordained ministers to perform marriages in the state is slated for a hearing in August. The original suit was filed in 2019, after Tennessee lawmakers passed a law banning such ministers from performing marriages in the state.
”For the last four years, we’ve contended with delay after delay after delay as the state and local officials we sued have employed legal tactics to absolve themselves of responsibility and prolong our expensive battle,” ULC said in a March blog post.
While the Tennessee law was quickly blocked by a judge, ULC said it’s still not certain its ministers can legally perform weddings. Further, the status of marriages performed by ULC ministers would remain unclear if the group loses its lawsuit.
”Reading all of this, you might be frightened,” ULC said in a blog post last month. “We won’t lie: so are we.”
And just like that, it’s another year gone. With the snap of a finger, 12 months have flashed by and, gulp, is it the end of December already? Every year since 2020, we’ve wondered if maybe, just maybe, this upcoming year will be the one where we all shake off the doldrums of a post-Covid reality, rush out to the street en masse, and burst into glorious song and dance. Maybe not quite so much exuberance, but things are certainly ramping up. A completed Tom Lee Park is on the horizon, our local music scene is going strong, Memphis sports are gearing up for championship runs, and mayoral hopefuls are quietly slipping the gloves off. If that’s enough to get you giddy with anticipation, well, you’ve earned it. Prepare to take off the handbrake, and read on for our predictions for 2023.
(Top) Tom Lee Park (Photo: Memphis River Parks Partnership)
Breaking News
Tom Lee Park
Maybe the most anticipated opening of 2023 is the renovated, completely re-imagined Tom Lee Park.
The massive, $61 million project is expected to completely transform Memphis’ riverfront, drawing visitors — locals and tourists alike — to see it. Gone will be the flat, wide-open plain of grass between the Mississippi River and Riverside Drive. It will be replaced with low hills, native plants, lookouts, bathrooms, sports and recreation areas, play equipment, concessions, and more. When the project was announced back in 2019, the new design was described as “a blend of landscaping and architecture meant to mimic and restore some of the 30-acre river park’s natural ecology and better connect the city to the river.”
The anticipation of the park’s opening comes with both excited expectation and some anxiety. The new park design is expected to better connect the park with the rest of Downtown Memphis, to the delight of city leaders. All of those tourists will come at the delight of Downtown business owners.
However, the new design will bring growing pains for Memphis in May. The organization has already predicted a much smaller festival in the park and, maybe, higher prices for festival-goers to pay for the higher fees for using the park.
Memphis River Parks Partnership officials said in September that the project was halfway complete. The park has to at least be ready enough to host Memphis in May in a few short months. Officials said a grand opening of the park will be held after May’s events.
The park’s opening was one major reason travel magazine Condé NastTraveler named Memphis one of the top places to visit in 2023, one of only two places in the U.S. — Toby Sells
Memphis Sports & Events Center (Photo: Frank Murtaugh)
Memphis Sports & Events Center
Expect to (probably) see the inside of the brand-new and newly opened Memphis Sports & Events Center (MSEC) in 2023. The $60 million facility was built in 18 months and will be the centerpiece of the new sports tourism hook for Liberty Park (or the Mid-South Fairgrounds if you’re old-timey).
At 227,000 square feet, the MSEC has a footprint the size of four football fields. Each of two wings features eight basketball courts that can convert into as many as 32 volleyball courts. The north wing includes stadium seating to accommodate 3,500 spectators, along with four VIP suites and boxes for media and recruiters.
The center is a gamble by city leaders that it will attract new visitors to Memphis via youth sports travel teams for indoor sports like basketball, volleyball, and more. Funding for the center, though, is expected to come from tax revenues generated from a zone around the facility, presumably enough to pay for itself. — TS
Moth Moth Moth (Photo: Moth Moth Moth)
Outlawing Drag
The state of Tennessee saw numerous controversies regarding drag shows in 2022. In September, what was advertised as a “family-friendly” drag show at the Museum of Science and History (MoSH) was canceled after a group of Proud Boys showed up to the event armed. The Jackson Pride drag show was limited to participants aged 18 and older after weeks of battling between event organizers and lawmakers in Jackson, Tennessee.
Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) recently filed legislation for the 113th Tennessee General Assembly that could potentially make drag performances in Tennessee a crime. This legislation would define drag shows as “adult cabaret” and would prohibit these performances in public places.
The bill also goes on to make performing in “adult cabaret performance” on public property or “in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a person who is not an adult” a Class A misdemeanor. Repeat offenders face a Class E felony.
Local LGBTQ+ activists in Memphis such as Moth Moth Moth (Mothie for short) have voiced their concerns over social media and are actively working to raise awareness and fight back.
“This is a slippery slope that aims to force drag artists into our homes and LGBTQIA+ people out of public sight,” said Mothie in a Facebook post. “How can you fight this? Call your reps. And scream at them.”
It might be a while before this sticks, as the legislature does not reconvene until January. If passed, the law would take effect in July 2023. — Kailynn Johnson
Jim Strickland (Photo: City of Memphis)
On the Political Horizon
Much of the New Year will be devoted to the selection of a new mayor and city council by Memphis voters. The quadrennial process, which actually got under way in the late months of 2022, will formally conclude on Thursday, October 5, 2023. Long before the resolution of that contest, however, the actual first election of the year, a special election for the state House District 86 seat, will have already occurred. The primary date for the special election, which was called to decide a successor to the late Barbara Cooper, who died in October, is January 24th, with the general election scheduled for March 14th.
A referendum on the November 8th ballot allowing for a third term for the Memphis mayor and members of the city council was rejected by the city’s voters, thereby foreclosing on a possible re-election bid by Mayor Jim Strickland and ensuring that a new face would be at the helm of city government, come October 5th. The reality of an open seat also made it likely that the mayoral field would swell to include numerous challengers, several of whom had announced in late fall and early winter, with more expected after the turn of the year.
The first gauge of true candidate viability will come on or around January 15th, when end-of-the-year financial disclosures will be required of the mayoral hopefuls, with information on their campaign war chests to be made publicly available. Several of the so-far announced candidates — notably Sheriff Floyd Bonner, former County Commissioner and NAACP head Van Turner, and president/CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission Paul Young — are thought to have good fundraising prospects, with the potential to scare off rivals. Race is unlikely to be a factor, since all the actual or rumored candidates to date have been African Americans — a development consistent with the city’s demographic profile. Gender could be important, however, especially if either school board chair Michelle McKissack or state House Democratic leader Karen Camper stay in the race and get up a good head of steam. A few long-odds candidates, already in or thinking about it, include former TV judge Joe Brown and former County Commissioner Justin Ford.
In Nashville, the Republican legislative supermajority, somewhat further entrenched after redistricting, remains in charge, and two bills that are aimed at the state’s LGBTQ+ community have already been filed, and, with administration acquiescence if not outright support, will doubtless go to the head of the class. One would prohibit gender-affirmation surgery on behalf of transgender youth; another would place serious restrictions on public drag shows. Legislation to update the revenue sources undergirding the IMPROVE transportation act sponsored by former Governor Bill Haslam in 2017 is considered urgently necessary, especially in anticipation of the forthcoming needs of Ford’s BlueOval project at the West Tennessee megasite. Governor Bill Lee has made it clear, however, that further increases in the state’s gasoline tax are off the table.
Meanwhile, the version of the Shelby County Commission elected in August is Democratic-controlled (nine Democrats vs. four Republicans) and conspicuously more liberal (in every sense of the word) than the GOP establishment in the state Capitol. In a meeting just before Christmas, the commissioners put together a wish list of financial favors it wants from the state that may have hard going with the parsimonious Lee and his legislative leadership.
The commissioners’ list includes millions for Regional One Health (long known as The Med and, now as then, regarded as financially ailing) and more millions for new schools, a new jail, sewer expansion, mental health, and broadband improvements. All in all, the requests add up to $1.2 billion.
For some decades now, tension has developed between spokespersons for Shelby County and the state political establishment (regardless of political-party issues). Especially in view of the state’s apparently ever-mounting efforts to limit local options, the coming session should underscore these further. — Jackson Baker
Artina McCain (Photo: Courtesy Artina McCain)
Rock On: Live Music in 2023
With in-person performances roaring back to life over the past year, there are plenty of concerts to look forward to in 2023, though the various viral hazards still at large may still yet cause cancellations. For starters, of course, New Year’s Eve shows are just around the corner, including Blind Mississippi Morris and band at Blues City Cafe, Louder Than Bombs at B-Side, the Memphis Funk-N-Horns at Neil’s Music Room, and a double header of Formerly Known As and Twin Soul at Lafayette’s Music Room. With Jerry Lee Lewis’ recent death, many will likely flock to Hernando’s Hide-a-Way as they ring in 2023 with Jason D. Williams, who carries the Jerry Lee torch in his own inimitable way.
As January rolls on, local venues are bringing the entertainment without a pause. Lafayette’s general manager Julien Salley Jr. says, “It’s pretty exciting to see our ticketed shows return to full speed after what Covid did to us. Beyond a heavy schedule of the best local artists in Memphis, we also have incoming: Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, Samantha Fish, Tab Benoit, Marc Broussard, Adelitas Way, Smile Empty Soul, and a ton of other exciting acts.”
Meanwhile, even more exquisite concerts will grace Memphis concert halls. The Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) already has the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, Stacey Kent, and The Milk Carton Kids in January; Neko Case, Cécile McLorin Salvant, Pilobolus, and Samara Joy in February; and Step Afrika!, Marie-Stéphane Bernard, and Anthony Wilson in March.
Crosstown Arts will host more classical concerts than ever in the new year, including the Mahogany Chamber Music Series, three shows curated by Artina McCain that spotlight Black and other underrepresented composers and performers. There’s also the intriguingly titled “Mozart and Electric Guitar Concerto” by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Iris Collective’s “Spacetime.” But it’s the jazz curation that should win Crosstown medals, as they begin with guitarist Jimmy Bruno, then go deep in March when Crosstown’s “jazz month” will include another guitar giant, Peter Bernstein, as well as Marc Ribot, The Bad Plus, Deepstaria Enigmatica, singer Morgan James, and James Sexton’s The Otis Mission.
Of course, the rock world choogles on, so keep checking the offerings at Hernando’s, Growlers, Hi Tone, Bar DKDC, Young Avenue Deli, Railgarten, the Cove, Lamplighter Lounge, and B-Side. If you’re thinking big, Graceland Live will keep bringing the national touring acts — like Cinderella’s Tom Keifer and Mr. “Pretty Little Poison,” Warren Zeiders, in February. The Orpheum and Halloran theaters have even more on deck, from the Black Love Live soul concert to Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys, not to mention Mark Edgar Stuart’s ongoing songwriter series, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros., the McCrary Sisters in February, and a smashing lineup of Buddy Guy, Patti Labelle, Van Duren, and John Mellencamp in the months to follow. — Alex Greene
Timothée Chalamet returns in Dune: Part Two.
Future Film
There was much kvetching about the future of the theater business in 2022, as box office returns ranged from extraordinary (Top Gun: Maverick made $1.5 billion) to job-killing (Disney’s $100 million loss on Strange World cost CEO Bob Chapek his career). But 2023’s release calendar looks a little more stacked, money-wise, than 2022’s pandemic-ravaged offerings. January starts strong with M3GAN, a creepy doll robot horror movie, and a reboot of the ’90s hip-hop classic House Party. February has Soderbergh sprinkling stripper fairy dust with Magic Mike’s Last Dance, the year’s first Marvel movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and a true story whose name says it all, Cocaine Bear.
In March, star Michael B. Jordan takes to the ring as director of Creed III. Memphian Henry Gayden returns as writer for the sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Keanu Reeves kicks all kinds of ass in John Wick: Chapter 4, and Chris Pine leads an attempt to translate Dungeons & Dragons to the big screen with Honor Among Thieves. April dawns with The Super Mario Brothers Movie, featuring the other, lesser Chris — Pratt — as the Italian plumber, for some reason. Chris McKay helms Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage as freakin’ Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as the vampire’s thrall. Later, a new crew takes on the Deadites in Evil Dead Rise, and the beloved Judy Blume novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret finally gets an adaptation.
The big guns come out in May, when James Gunn takes his final bow as a Marvel director with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and Fast X brings all the family back together to drive fast some more. In June, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse will test if Marvel can keep its Spider-streak alive. The next week, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts will no doubt supply me with fodder for an entertaining pan. June 16th, everyone who’s anyone (Swinton! Cranston! Hanks! Goldblum!) will be in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, while walking PR crisis Ezra Miller tanks The Flash. The month ends with Harrison Ford’s swan song as the world’s favorite archeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
In July, Tom Cruise hopes to repeat 2022’s box office triumph with Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One. July 21st brings the strangest pairing of any weekend, with Christopher Nolan’s biopic of the man who invented the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer, and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. For the record, I’m up for both. August slows down with a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles flick, Disney’s long-delayed Haunted Mansion, and Blue Beetle. In a September with The Equalizer 2, The Nun 2, and The Expendables 4, the only potential bright spot is the latest installment of Branagh’s Agatha Christie kick, A Haunting in Venice. Kraven The Hunter leads October, and Saw X rounds out Halloween weekend. Return to Arrakis on November 3rd with Dune: Part Two (if you thought the first one was a snoozer, this is where all the good stuff happens). Was anyone asking for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? At least DreamWorks’ windfall from Trolls 3 will help pad Justin Timberlake’s retirement account. Currently scheduled for December is Timothée Chalamet in Wonka, a remake of The Color Purple, and a currently untitled Ghostbusters sequel, before the year squishes to a close with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. — Chris McCoy
Penny Hardaway (Photo: Larry Kuzniewski)
2023 Tip-off: Memphis Sports
It’s the Sweet 16 or bust for Coach Penny Hardaway and his Memphis Tigers basketball team. This is especially the case for the nine(!) seniors that make up virtually the entire rotation for the fifth-year coach. New arrival Kendric Davis — a transfer from SMU — could pull off the rare feat of winning his league’s Player of the Year honors two years in a row for different teams. If Davis stays healthy and continues to excel, and supporting veterans like DeAndre Williams and Alex Lomax make the right kind of impact, reaching the NCAA tournament’s second weekend for the first time since (gulp) 2009 is within reach.
Three questions will follow the Memphis Grizzlies into 2023. Can Ja Morant win the MVP award (would be a franchise first)? Yes. Can the Griz win the freakin’ NBA championship? Yes. The third question is the most problematic: Can the Memphis Grizzlies ever play at full strength? The team has climbed to the top of the Western Conference standings without playing a solitary game featuring Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Desmond Bane all in uniform. Should the team be able to unleash their big-three on the rest of the NBA for a sustained stretch — preferably into May and June — there may be a large parade this summer on Beale Street.
The Memphis Redbirds will take the field for their 25th season in a refurbished AutoZone Park, a brand-new playing surface complemented by a brand-new video board. And the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate may feature two of the top prospects in all of minor-league baseball. Slugger Jordan Walker — a third-baseman and outfielder — could make the club’s big-league roster out of spring training despite his tender age (20). Shortstop Masyn Winn is another elite young talent, with an arm that makes many pitchers blush. The Redbirds are looking to make their first playoff appearance since joining the International League in 2022. — Frank Murtaugh
Memphis 901 FC are coming off their best-ever season after making it to the USL Eastern Conference semifinals. With titans in defense, midfield, and attack, coach Ben Pirmann unlocked the full potential of this squad, who were a penalty kick away from the conference finals. Pirmann will unfortunately no longer lead the team next season, having accepted an offer from USL rival Charleston Battery FC. Next year it’s Scotsman Stephen Glass, who has previous coaching experience in America with MLS side Atlanta United and its USL affiliate Atlanta United 2. And crucially, the organization has gone to great lengths to retain key players. Rather than building from scratch, star striker Phillip Goodrum (21 goals last season), midfielders Aaron Molloy and Laurent Kissiedou, defender Graham Smith, and captain Leston Paul, among others, will all return. Memphis came close to reaching the conference finals. For the following year, taking that next step is a distinct possibility. — Samuel X. Cicci
Legislation was passed on Thursday, December 8th, by the United States House of Representatives that protects same-sex and interracial marriage. The next step is for President Joe Biden to sign the bill into law.
The Respect For Marriage Act, which was passed by the Senate in November, provides “statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages.” It requires all states to recognize “valid marriages,” and it repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton.
According to Congress, the “bill replaces provisions that define, for purposes of federal law, marriage as between a man and a woman and spouse as a person of the opposite sex with provisions that recognize any marriage between two individuals that is valid under state law.” The bill also “replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
The House voted 258 to 169, with 39 Republicans voting in favor of the bill. All Democrat representatives voted to pass the bill.
No members from the Tennessee GOP voted to support the bill.
When the bill was passed through the Senate, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Haggerty were among the 36 republicans who voted against the bill.
The future of same-sex marriages was questioned after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June. This speculation was heightened after Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the concurring opinion that “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”
Congressman Steve Cohen voted in favor of the act. Cohen released this statement regarding his vote.
“The Respect for Marriage Act simply says each state will recognize other states’ marriages and not deny a person the right to marry based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. The only reason to vote against it is if you believe people shouldn’t have the right to choose their partner and marry who they love. I do and was proud to vote for them.”
Representatives from local LGBTQ+ organizations and establishments in Memphis voiced their excitement over this news.
Keleigh Klarke, the entertainment director of Dru’s Place (Dru’s Bar) located on 1474 Madison Ave. said, “We are ecstatic! For myself, having just gotten married on November 12th, and with the current attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, this is an amazing bit of peace to carry through our days. We have multiple Dru’s family members that the passing of this bill will be a huge comfort to and others that it will give a brighter and more hopeful outlook to the future!”
Phillis Lewis, CEO and founder of Love Doesn’t Hurt, a nonprofit that “provides assistance to victims of Domestic & Sexual Violence in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community,” said, “The recent passage of the bill is definitely a step in the right direction to help provide protections for marriages involving not only same-sex couples but interracial ones as well. We hope this momentum continues to create a country that is equitable and does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression or identity, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.”
On the front page of last Wednesday’s Commercial Appeal, there was a fascinating story by reporter Katherine Burgess about a cow sanctuary in nearby Arlington. The farm is run by a Hindu nonprofit organization and now has almost 200 Gyr cattle, or as they are sometimes called, sacred cows.
Hindus from all over, even India, have made pilgrimages to the farm for worship. Burgess quoted Purushotham Tandu, the spiritual advisor at the organization: “The cow has many healing capacities. When you go close to the cow, it will vibrate on certain frequencies. We have certain frequencies. So whatever unwanted emotions, it will take and will replace with good emotions and cosmic energy.” Okay.
When it comes to religion, I’ve been a devout agnostic for decades. I am from Missouri, after all. This is not to say that I haven’t experienced certain inexplicable feelings at times, emotions that seem somehow spiritual, connected to something beyond the pale of this physical world. These occasional mysteries remind me to keep my options open, even though a formal “faith” eludes me.
Atheists and true believers have a lot in common, actually. You have to have faith to be an atheist. There’s no proof that God doesn’t exist, so atheism is just another faith-based belief system. Conversely, those who proclaim there is a god, are standing only on their faith to make that assertion. (The preceding is brought to you by every late-night dorm discussion I had in college.)
Now, when it comes to feeling the spiritual power of a Gyr cow, well, yes, I’m certainly agnostic. But who knows? Might be worth a trip to the ’burbs to find out. They’re pretty impressive-looking beasts. Who knows what harmonic frequencies they may have tapped into?
Oddly, there was another religion story (also by Burgess) on the front page of that Wednesday paper. This one was about Christ Church Memphis, a large local Protestant congregation that had just voted by a 90 percent to 10 percent margin to leave the United Methodist Church. I was raised in the Methodist Church, so I was curious why this denomination had decided to sever ties with the mother ship.
Sigh.
It seems the Christ Church Memphis folks don’t approve of the current LGBTQ-acceptance policies of the United Methodist Church, which is letting LGBTQ Methodists (gasp!) get married to one another. And they’re even allowing some of them to become members of the clergy. The horror! What would Jesus do?
Ninety percent of Christ Church members seem to think Jesus hated queers and wouldn’t let them become members of his church. And, to be fair, they ought to know, right? I mean, “Christ” is right there in the church’s name, so these people are obviously true followers of Jesus’ teachings.
Except for maybe they’re not.
Here are a couple of Jesus’ thoughts they may have overlooked: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Also this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
So, the good folks at Christ Church have obviously made a couple addendums to those teachings, like, “Nuh-uh. Jesus wasn’t talking about them gays when he said those things. And even if he didn’t condemn them, we do! And this is our church, dammit!”
Jesus.
As a certified agnostic, let me toss out some free advice on religion, okay? If your church judges people of a certain creed, gender, or sexual identity as inherently evil, you need a new church. If your preacher preaches chastity and fools around with the congregation’s teenagers, you need a new church. If your preacher drives a new Mercedes and lives in a gated mansion, you need a new church. If your preacher condemns abortion as murder and then endorses Herschel Walker for senator, you need a new church. If your preacher is a MAGA Trumper, run! You really need a new church, and maybe a little remedial study of the true tenets of Christianity.
Here’s the bottom line, straight from Jesus: “Do unto others [all others!] as you would have them do unto you.” It’s the closest thing to a sacred cow you’ll find in the Bible. Take it in. Breathe it. Feel its frequency.
Two annual springtime festivals in Memphis honored African countries this year, both of which outlaw basic LGBTQ+ rights, and those choices face critics who wish the organizations would have picked other countries to celebrate.
Africa in April (AIA) this year honored Malawi for its festival held last weekend. Memphis in May (MIM) picked Ghana to celebrate in 2018 for its 2020 festival and kept the country in place through Covid-canceled and pared-down festivities until this year.
Same-sex intercourse is banned in both countries, punishable by imprisonment, according to the U.S. Department of State. Gay marriage is illegal in both, according to Equaldex. Discrimination is tolerated in education, housing, and employment, according to the State Department.
In 2019, Human Rights Watch reported LGBTQ+ Malawians face “routine violence and discrimination in almost every aspect of their daily lives.” In February 2021, the LGBT+ Rights Ghana advocacy group headquarters was raided by police, shut down, and remained closed. A law under review in Ghana would make identifying as gay or a gay ally punishable by five years in prison. The new law would make LGBTQ advocacy punishable by 10 years in prison.
“We honor the culture of the country.”
David L. Acey, Africa In April organizer
“We honor the culture of the country,” said David L. Acey, an organizer of AIA. “We don’t get involved in the politics.”
Acey said his group checks with government officials in choosing its honored country to help ensure “they’re not just killing each other.”
MIM picks its honored countries three years in advance, said Randy Blevins, spokesman for the group. They are chosen by an International Selection Committee comprised of people with international experience from business, government, education, and the arts. This group looks for ties between nations and the Mid-South to exchange culture and foster economic connections.
He said Ghana fit the selection guidelines but did not address local criticism of the country’s LGBTQ+ record.
“A large portion of the population in Memphis and the Mid-South can trace ancestry to West Africa and Ghana in particular.”
Randy Blevins, Memphis In May spokesman
“A large portion of the population in Memphis and the Mid-South can trace ancestry to West Africa and Ghana in particular,” Blevins said in a statement. “There’s a lot of excitement around the festival’s salute to Ghana and we look forward to showcasing the people of Ghana’s art, music, dance, cuisine, and more.”
Memphis filmmaker Mark Jones said he’s eager to get MIM’s Ghana celebration over with but said, “I don’t ever want to see Memphis In May do this again.”
“They cannot honor a country with such a horrific viewpoint against LGBTQ+ people.”
Mark Jones, local filmmaker
“They cannot honor a country with such a horrific viewpoint against LGBTQ+ people,” Jones said. “It just sends a bad signal to the LGBTQ+ folks here in Memphis and the Mid-South that we would honor a country that does not honor all of its citizens.”
Should MIM honor such a country like Ghana again, Jones threatened to organize a “Memphis In Gay” festival.
OUTMemphis executive director Molly Rose Quinn said much of the world is unsafe for LGBTQ+ people, including Tennessee with its litany of discriminatory laws passed this year and years before it. It’s also unsafe for the group in Memphis where “many kids are not safe from bullying, violence, and harassment at school.”
“We hope those same people and same institutions spend even a fraction of the same time and resources invested in the basic human rights not afforded to queer and trans Memphians.”
Molly Rose Quinn, executive director OUTMemphis
“We stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ people everywhere, and while Memphis learns about and celebrates Ghanaian culture this spring, we hope those same people and same institutions spend even a fraction of the same time and resources invested in the basic human rights not afforded to queer and trans Memphians,” Rose Quinn said.
Shahin Samiei, Shelby County organizer with the Tennessee Equality Project, said it wasn’t long ago that LGBTQ+ people were criminalized in the U.S. He’s hopeful in the cultural exchange from these festivals.
“This gives us an opportunity to collectively learn from, and impart positive examples back with those countries, examples like equality and defending the human rights of all persons.”
Shahin Samiei, Shelby County coordinator with the Tennessee Equality Project
“This gives us an opportunity to collectively learn from, and impart positive examples back with those countries, examples like equality and defending the human rights of all persons,” Samiei said. “In time, these may influence positive changes in their laws. After all, it has taken decades of visibility, representation, and advocacy to expand equal rights in the United States and we’re by no means done.
“It is critical that we support the fight toward equality, justice, and freedom for all here at home, and thereby still prove ourselves an ever-evolving shining beacon of those for other countries as well.”
