(New York Post) Members of a regional women’s country line dance team were reportedly kicked out of a Seattle dance convention after organizers claimed their American flag-themed shirts made some attendees feel “triggered and unsafe.”
Over the weekend at the Emerald City Hoedown in Seattle, the Borderline Dance team was set to perform, but were essentially told they weren’t welcome by organizer Rain Country Dance Association, an LGBTQ+ dance community, over their matching American flag themed shirts, Jason Rantz reported for 770 KTTH.
“Unfortunately, what our team was met with upon arrival was that our flag tops were offensive to some of the convention goers,” the dance group posted to Facebook.
“There was a small group that felt ‘triggered and unsafe.’”
Co-captain Lindsay Stamp spoke with Rantz for The Jason Rantz Show, explaining that their costumes sparked a “small percentage” of complainants who brought up Israel’s war against Hamas and transgender issues.
“At first we were told we would just be boo’d, yelled at and likely many of them would walk out,” the group’s Facebook post explained. “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,” the post said. “As we knew would happen because there really was no choice in our minds, it was a unanimous NO.”
Stamp told Rantz that members of the team were shocked after they spent only 30 minutes at the venue before they started receiving complaints, adding that the team is patriotic, but doesn’t make statements about politics.
“My team doesn’t take a political stance. We came to dance,” she said. “We’re a patriotic group. We support our military, our veterans, our first responders. We’re a group of patriots.”
In the Facebook post, the group said they were not the only one that received this treatment.
