Gay bars in the state are being forced to close their doors amid culture wars, protests by white supremacists and a looming crackdown on drag performances. From 1843 magazine
A lot has changed since the 1990s, said Lindsay Pride, the editor of a local newspaper. Back then, the city had no “major restaurants”, which she attributed to a law preventing establishments from serving alcohol by the glass. But over the past two decades, Cookeville’s population has risen by a third, to 36,000. With this influx, mores have loosened, as have laws.
Schoolchildren in Cookeville observe “Drive Your Tractor to School Day”. There are churches seemingly on every block and many shops are closed on Sunday. A confederate monument stands in a cemetery owned by the city Williams is at ease in the rural South. Though she has lived all over America – in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Pompano Beach in Florida – she was born in a small town in eastern Kentucky. She moved to Cookeville in 2017 when she bought the bar. She already knew the place – she had been regularly performing at Temptation for years – and liked it.
Williams had already been considering selling the bar. For much of the past year, business had been sluggish. She chalked it up to competition from bars in the big cities and a nagging fear among some patrons that they might be a target for violence. “People just don’t feel safe going to drag bars anymore,” she said, citing several shootings at gay bars in other parts of the country, most recently in Colorado last December.
, or the Tennessee Active Club, two white-supremacist groups. One protester waved a Nazi flag. Presley Onassis, who performed at Hix that day, was so petrified that she called her mother and left a message bidding her goodbye.The response of the mayor and other authorities made Williams even more fearful.
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