A Seattle women’s dance team was unable to perform at a nation dance event wearing clothes with the American flag because some visitors described themselves as” triggered and unsafe.”
Prior to the LGBTQ firm that hosted the event, members of the Borderline Dance Team received an order before being able to demonstrate their swings at the Emerald City Hoedown.  ,
Rain Country Dance Association, a nonprofit group that hosts situations to bring the country and western party image to the “queer” group, reportedly told the Borderline dancing that their red, white, and blue tops were “offensive”.
” Unfortunately, some convention goers were offended by our team’s flag tops when they arrived,” the team’s manager said. There was a small group that felt’ triggered and unsafe,'” Borderline Dance Team wrote on Facebook.  ,
We have been responding to numerous calls and messages from friends and family over the past two days. Feelings have …
Posted by Borderline Dance Team on , Monday, April 8, 2024
The team continued, citing” the situation in Palestine” and the” trans community in America” as the reasons that people were offended.
” 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”, the dance squad said. ” But then we were given an ultimatum”.
Members said they were told to “remove the flag tops and perform in either street clothes ( which most did n’t bring, as they traveled there in their uniforms ) or they would supply us with ECH shirts from years past…Or, do n’t perform at all, which, effectively, was asking us to leave”.
Borderline added that the Emerald City Hoedown organizers had previously been informed of their patriotic outfits, but the event hosts had to delete the images from their website after editing their website on Wednesday.
The Borderline dancers said it was simple to decline to perform in alternative attire.
The decision was theirs because, in our minds, there was no other choice, so we spoke for them instead. It was a unanimous NO”, the Facebook post continued.  ,
The team credited another squad, West Coast Country Heat, for walking out of the event,” as they, too, proudly don the colors of our country in the same spirit of patriotism that we do” . ,
” Both of our teams stood in solidarity and spoke with words,” Borderline said.
Speaking with the Jason Rantz Show, team co- captain Lindsay Stamp said that the complaints, which began after just 30 minutes of being at the venue, represented a” small percentage” of the event’s attendees.
” My team does n’t take a political stance. We came to dance”, she told host Jason Rantz. ” We’re a patriotic group. We support our military, our veterans, our first responders. We’re a group of patriots”.
” We all understood and accepted this, and we all left with class and dignity despite the discrimination we experienced,” the Facebook post for the group stated.  ,
The Emerald City Hoedown posted a vague post and disabled the comments, though it did not directly address the incident:
Hi, y’all! We are aware that there are some questions about the Saturday night performance line-up now that another amazing Hoedown weekend has come to an end. We appreciate you taking the time to explain the situation and speak with the people who are directly involved. Once we are able to have those conversations, we will post a follow-up statement later this week.
Hi y’all! We are aware that there are some questions about Saturday night after the conclusion of another amazing Hoedown weekend.
Posted by Emerald City Hoedown on , Monday, April 8, 2024
Ziadee Cambier, president of the Rain Country Dance Association, stated in a comment made under a different Facebook post that the Borderline Dance Team was not instructed to leave.
She wrote,” We will be in continued communication with the captains of the dance teams that were scheduled to perform Saturday.”
To clarify, as this was not a competition, no one was disqualified, and no one was asked to leave. We will be disabling comments on this post while we are mending our relationships directly with the dance teams. Later this week, we’ll be sharing more details to hopefully correct any confusions.
According to Stamp, this was not just an honest miscommunication.  ,
” It’s pretty clear to me. There’s always room for error in any situation, but I do n’t believe so”, the dance captain told Rantz.
” I would just love to see more conversations opened about people accepting one another, about being wholly inclusive”, she added. ” You know, every group of]people ] talks about being inclusive and accepting. And I believe we must strive to be welcoming and accepting of people who are not yet at our comfort levels. I would love to see that”.
