Members of a Seattle-based country line dance team were left stunned after being told to change their costumes because their American flag-themed shirts made attendees feel “triggered and unsafe.”
The Borderline Dance Team says they have experienced a gamut of emotions from “outrage to sympathy to disbelief” after being invited to perform at the Emerald City Hoedown in Seattle, this past weekend.
According to a post from the group on Facebook, they had been asked to perform at the convention for the last three years but were unable to make it until this year.
The dance group accepted the invitation and were excited to take part in it.
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“Dance teams work their boots off preparing for performances like these. Extra practices, babysitters, ferry rides, hours upon hours of practice, and commute time and time away from their families. We all were very excited to perform for this event,” they wrote on Facebook.
When the group arrived in their American flag shirts they were told by the Rain Country Dance Association, an LGBTQ+ dance community, that their stars and stripes made a small group of attendees uncomfortable.
“They had several claims for this reasoning. Mostly associated with the situation in Palestine and the Trans community in America,” the Borderline team shared.
“At first we were told we would just be booed, yelled at and likely many of them would walk out. This did not deter us. But then we were given an ultimatum,” they added.
According to the dance team, they were given the option of changing their outfits, which was impossible because some dancers did not bring another set of clothing, or wear mismatched shirts that were not a part of their brand.
“Or, don’t perform at all, which effectively was asking us to leave,” Borderline wrote on Facebook.
The team’s co-captain Lindsay Stamp told The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH that only a “small percentage” of attendees were upset about the shirts, but her entire team was heartbroken about the ultimatum.
“My team doesn’t take a political stance. We came to dance,” she explained.
The team shared that they were not the only ones who received a complaint.
Another dance team, West Coast Country Heat, also wore patriotic-themed shirts and were given the same ultimatum.
“Our friends, West Coast Country Heat, who were also scheduled to dance for the convention that evening also did not perform as they too proudly don the colors of our country in the same spirit of patriotism that we do,” the post said. “Both of our teams stood in solidarity and put actions to words.”
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Reprinted with permission from cbn.com. Copyright © 2024 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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