NOT COOL

A North Carolina Museum Took Down a Photo of a Gay Couple Kissing

Staffers were instructed by the county manager to replace the photo with something “that would be more considerate of differing viewpoints.”

This week, staffers at the Gaston County Museum in Dallas, North Carolina, were instructed by Gaston County Manager Kim Eagle to take down a photograph of two men kissing and replace it with something “that would be more considerate of differing viewpoints in the community,” according to reporting by the Gaston Gazette. The photo, taken by photojournalist Grant Baldwin, shows now-married couple Justin Colasacco Bren Hipp at 2019’s Charlotte Pride Festival at the moment Colasacco proposed to Hipp. “When a photograph takes on a life of its own and has its own narrative from the perspective of the people who view it, that’s a job well done,” Baldwin told the Charlotte Observer. “I’m not happy that it does appear that issue is being taken because it’s an LGBTQ image.” “The idea behind the exhibit is to document a historical event, and there are other options from the photographer’s work that more fully capture the context of the parade that was documented,” Eagle said in a statement.