Local activists celebrate Pride outside museum

When Tim Caudill saw media reports about a Pride photo the Gaston County manager had removed from a museum exhibit, he picked up the phone. He wanted to do something.

"It's painfully obvious to me what's happening here," Caudill said. "They are the ones politicizing it."

Caudill is the chair of the LGBT Democrats for Equality, which is part of the Gaston County Democratic Party. The group — spearheaded by Caudill and Vice Chair Haley Shamblin — organized a gathering outside the Gaston County Museum of Art and History on Friday for LGBTQ people and allies to show their support of the photograph and those who were pictured.

The photo, which was taken by photojournalist Grant Baldwin and featured two men from Albemarle kissing after one of them proposed, was removed from the museum's "Into the Darkroom" photography exhibit under orders from County Manager Kim Eagle, the county said.

Caudill called the gathering on Friday a "peaceful get together to put love back into something that was taken away from us."

"Pride is not a time to hate, it's a time to love," he said.

Shamblin said that she feels Gaston County government used Eagle as a scapegoat.

"We just feel like this is taking a step backward as a community, when really we need to be taking a step forward," she said.

As members of the group trickled into the gazebo across the street from the museum, two police officers walked up. An officer told Caudill that if he planned to protest, he needed to obtain a permit from Dallas police. Caudill explained that the gathering was not a protest — they were simply gathering, without signs or chanting. The police officer gave him a copy of a permit application in case he wished to ask permission to protest and walked away. Several other police officers stood nearby, but they did not approach.

Melissa Wagner, the chair of the Gaston County Democratic Party, said that she came as a person who has friends and family in the LGBTQ community, "and I just want to support them." As a party, she said, they also support them.

"We condemn what (Eagle) did, and it baffles me that the county has a statue of hate (near) the courthouse, but someone from the county would remove such a beautiful expression of love," she said, referring to the statue of a Confederate veteran outside the Gaston County Courthouse. "We would like for Kim to apologize for what she did. We would like to see the picture put back."

Karen Bringle of Gastonia said that she is concerned about the message taking down the photo sends to young people in the LGBTQ community.

"It hurts people at all levels," she said. "That brought me out."

Adam Gaub, director of communications for Gaston County, said the county is maintaining its stance and has no further comments on the issue.

When Eagle told museum staff to remove the photo, she asked them to work with Baldwin to find a different photo "that would be more considerate of differing viewpoints in the community."

Baldwin told The Gazette that he has no plans to provide a replacement.

"I feel like there was … an attempt at control over the narrative of the images by the county manager, so I as a journalist I don't want to … submit to that," he said. "I don't want to allow my voice to be dictated by the county manager since the images are supposed to be representative of my work. So I think the best thing to do is just to not replace the image, is just to leave the remaining three there."

You can reach Kara Fohner at 704-869-1850 or email her at kfohner@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston County activists gather near museum to support Pride photo