Image Credit: Wilson County Clerk
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Republican Wilson County Mayor Randall Hutto is standing firm against demands that he allow the Pride flag to be flown at the County Courthouse during the rest of June.
Democrat Candidate for County Commissioner District 19, Aiden Pratt, has called for the mayor to allow the flag to be displayed as a “simple gesture of support for Wilson County’s LGBTQ+ community” but Hutto’s office says that they are following Tennessee law.
According to the mayor’s office, the County Attorney has stated that only the flags of the United States, Tennessee, and county are permitted to be displayed on public property.
Pratt says that counties can vote to approve additional flags, such as the Pride flag, and that Hutto’s refusal to bring a resolution to the county commission is an act of his political will.
During this year’s legislative session, Pratt was arrested at the Capitol by State Troopers while protesting a bill requiring that residential schools segregate restrooms, changing areas and showers by biological sex. The bill passed and was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee at the beginning of April.
In a press release about the Pride flag being displayed in Wilson County, Pratt wrote, “By refusing to even consider a resolution, Mayor Hutto is choosing to stand with his party rather than the people he serves. In a time when inclusion and representation matter more than ever, his silence speaks volumes.”
The majority of Wilson County’s electorate is conservative. Some in the community would say extremely so. In the last four Presidential elections, almost 70 percent of voters in the county picked the Republican ticket, with 25 percent to 29 percent of residents voting Democrat.
Hutto was himself challenged in his bid for reelection as mayor in the May 3rd, 2022 Republican Primary by a more conservative candidate who gained 37 percent of the votes in the race.
Phillip Warren, newly retired from his position as Administrator of Elections in the Wilson County Election Commission, was urged to run by community leaders. A bonafide Republican of 30 years at the time of the election, Warren stated that he had “experienced the growth of the conservative movement in Wilson County first-hand” having been County GOP Chairman, a Republican candidate and “an advocate for conservative values.”
In a Wilson County Republican Party meeting before the primary, where candidates were each given time to address members, Hutto took his turn at the mic to complain that he had been made to feel both unwelcome and not conservative enough for the voters before him.
Many conservatives in the county took issue with the mayor’s leadership pertaining to mask mandates in the county during the pandemic.
In 2020, after Governor Bill Lee announced Executive Order No. 54 which granted mayors in 89 counties the authority to issue local mask requirements, Hutto said that while he strongly encouraged their use, he would not make face coverings mandatory in public. About a week later, Hutto declared a state of emergency requiring them to be worn.
Just hours after the announcement, Hutto reversed his decision due to his office receiving many calls from residents about what the word ‘required’ meant in the press release. Hutto admitted that the mayor’s office had no authority to force anyone to wear a mask and reassured his constituents that nobody would be arrested for failing to mask.
The unenforceable mandate was finally lifted in March of 2021 with Hutto saying it had always been “more of a request than a requirement.”
Earlier this month, Wilson County’s largest city of Mt. Juliet saw its first ever Pride event, supported by the Wilson County Democratic Party and Wilson County Democratic Women.
Held in the parking lot of a local business, the event hosted Wilson County’s first drag queen storytime which featured Steven Raimo aka “Veronika Electronika” who bills himself as “Nashville’s premier Dolly Parton impersonator” reading to children.
On the heels of the Pride celebration, Pratt is urging residents to contact Hutto’s office to “demand that a resolution be introduced to display the Pride flag this June” at the county commissioner’s meeting on Monday, June 16th.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
