Friend, it’s always a rude awakening when local leaders are actively hateful toward LGBTQ people, and last week, one county commissioner in Tennessee really stepped over the line.

 “We got a queer running for president, if that ain’t about as ugly as you can get,” said Sevier County Comissioner Warren Hurst during a public meeting. “We can go over here to Hoss’s jail and get better people out of there than those running for Democratic to be president of the United States.”

GLAAD is fighting alongside the Tennessee Equality Project to censure Hurst, as well as to shine a media spotlight on his unacceptable comments. Can you donate $25 right now to help us win?

These comments don’t exist in a vacuum, friend. Just this year, the Tennessee legislature introduced a group of anti-LGBTQ bills that were designed to undermine and even eradicate the basic civil liberties of LGBTQ people. When elected officials make comments like these unchecked, it emboldens them to take legislative action to turn their bigoted beliefs into laws. We cannot allow that to happen.

Friend, GLAAD will always step up to fight back in moments like these, and it means so much to know we can count on you to join us. Your donation of $25 today is about much more than money -- it’s you raising your voice to say that you will never accept elected leaders spewing hate and discrimination against LGBTQ people:

Thank you so much for your help,

Drew Anderson
Director of Campaigns & Rapid Response

P.S. Want more ways to help? You can also sign this petition from the Tennessee Equality Project to censure Commissioner Hurst and make Sevier County policies more inclusive for LGBTQ Tennesseans.