Lesbians at Dollywood

Posted on July 30, 2011 by William Ashton

(AP)  NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A lesbian couple is asking for changes at Dollywood after an employee asked one of the women to turn her T-shirt reading “marriage is so gay” inside-out to avoid offending others on a recent visit to the Tennessee theme park complex. link

This has been discussed on TV news shows and the internet lately.  What has not been mentioned in these discussions is that Dollywood is NOT a public space; it is a commercial space.  Laws of free speech don’t apply.  Dollywood is free to do what it sees best to further its commercial (financial) purposes.  We have fewer and fewer public spaces today.  Shopping malls, shopping plazas and stores are commercial spaces.

About William Ashton

I'm an associate professor in the Behavioral Sciences Department and the Director of the York College Honors Program. I'm a social psychologist and currently my research project is in attribution theory, blame and sexual assault. I teach Social Psych, I/O Psych, Organizational Behavior and Research Methods.
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1 Response to Lesbians at Dollywood

  1. David says:
    July 30, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    I didn’t understand the issue this couple had. It wasn’t as if the park asked them to leave, or told them they weren’t allowed to enter the park. This was a non-story in my opinion but the media really ran with it which I thought was surprising.

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