A lesbian couple is upset with the policies at Dollywood after a park employee asked one of them to reverse her shirt reading "Marriage is so gay" while visiting the family theme park, Nashville's WTVF News Channel 5 reported today.
Olivier Odom and Jennifer Tipton said they'd like the park to be more inclusive of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families after Odom was asked to reverse her shirt during a visit to Dollywood Splash Country, right next to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge.
Dollywood spokesman Pete Owens said the park is open to all families, but added that Dollywood's policy is to ask people with apparel or tattoos that others might consider offensive to either change, or cover up.
Ironically, Dolly Parton is one of the very few stars in the overwhelmingly right-leaning country music world to openly voice support for gay marriage. "Sure, why can't they get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do," she quipped to Joy Behar in 2009.
Parton also took issue with televangelist and author Joel Osteen for his comment that "homosexuality is not God's best work."
"I think God made us who we are and how we are," she insisted, "and I don't think if [Osteen] was a religious person, he would be judging people."
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