It's Pride Month?
🌈 Local media plays the patsy · MNPS rejects charters · No tax cut proposal · TN congressional races · Most wanted illegal · Much more!
Good afternoon, everyone. Today, we remind you — begrudgingly — that it’s Pride Month, catch up on the school board’s latest effort to deny more charter schools, peek at upcoming Congressional races, and present the Most Wanted Illegal of the day. First time reading? Sign up here.
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Pride Month this year has been so demure that I forgot it was June. But at the local level, that’s not for lack of trying. A recent incident in which a mover for Black Tie Moving hit a trans person at a local storage facility got rung up the local media flagpole as a rare example of violence against trans people.
“It is something we hear about, but most of us rarely see: violence in the transgender community,” NC5 anchor Carrie Sharp said in her introduction to an interview with the victim, Tyler Flanagan.
During the conversation, Flanagan lays out the series of events that led up to the punch. Movers hurled homophobic slurs and misgendered Flanagan and a friend. Upon going back inside, one of the movers approached Flanagan and tried to hit Flanagan in the face. All of this is shown in the NC5 report on the incident via security footage.
At the end of the segment, we learn there was a confrontation in the parking lot involving a milkshake hurled from a car window before the attack, but NC5 remained entirely incurious about the specifics, allowing Flanagan to dismiss it: “We’re just human beings, and no matter how you spin it, I did not deserve to be attacked.”
In the aftermath, the Black Tie mover was fired, and as is tradition in these cases, Flanagan set up a GoFundMe. “What started as hateful harassment quickly escalated into a violent assault—rooted in transphobia and ignorance,” reads the page. “As we go into pride month, [Flanagan’s] using this moment to fight for justice for a community that is more times than not overlooked,” it ends.
MNPD dug into the case and revealed another side of the story, noting that the movers accused Flanagan and the friend of using racially insulting language (the mover appears to be black) and that additional security footage shows Flanagan throwing a milkshake at the accused, sparking the physical confrontation. As a result, the District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute the case.
The LGBTQ Caucus then jumped into the fray, asking the DA’s office to review the facts of the case again, which they are presumably doing, to determine if the mover’s actions qualify as a hate crime. “During this month of Pride, the Caucus is especially concerned about Nashville’s protection of the LGBTQ community,” reads the release.
Well, I hate to break it to the LGBTQ Caucus, but most of us forgot about Pride Month entirely, so I think y’all are in the clear. DAVIS HUNT
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
🎓 MNPS Rejects More Charters Yesterday, Metro Nashville’s Board of Education denied the amended applications for three proposed public charter schools. Over the years, we’ve seen various school boards throughout Tennessee reject charter school applications that have been approved by the state. Observers on both sides of the aisle have highlighted the politicization of the process as public school leaders continue to push back against the state’s initiatives to expand education alternatives.
Leading up to the vote, TN Firefly posited that Nashville may have moved up their charter review timeline to skirt a new law that would allow charter schools to bypass local boards in certain instances and apply through the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission instead. The new law does not go into effect until July 1, and last night’s review process took place before the deadline—a month earlier compared to similar reviews conducted in years past.
District 3 School Board Member Zach Young brought up this point at the meeting. MNPS Director Adrienne Battle said that the reason for the earlier timeline was that the board is required to review applications within 60 days of their filing. When Young asked why the MNPS board denies applications approved by the state Charter Commission, Battle simply stated that she “can’t answer that question on the behalf of the state, but point well received."
💸 Porterfield Won’t Propose Tax Cut “The juice isn't worth the squeeze,” said Chair Delishia Porterfield during yesterday’s Budget & Finance Work Session when explaining that the mayor’s proposed property tax increase will remain in her substitute budget. “Maybe a taxpayer's bill goes down by about $8 to $16, but we're losing millions upon millions of services.”
That said, additional spending requests have been made through the “wishlist” process. According to Porterfield, council members have brought forward $83 million in unique requests. An additional $45 million has been requested for the Metro employee pay plan. To fund these changes, cuts have been proposed to Metro Nashville Public Schools, Metro Nashville Police Department, the Finance Department, the Office of Homeless Services, the Assessor of Properties, the Planning Commission, and others. Porterfield’s budget changes will be filed this week.
🗳️ TN Congressional Races Shortly after Representative Mark Green announced he will be vacating his office yesterday, Commissioner of the State Department of General Services, Matt Van Epps, announced that he will be stepping down to pursue Green’s 7th District seat. “I never planned on running for Congress,” said Epps, an Army veteran who served in the 101st Airborne Division. “I am a servant leader, not a career politician, who has always prided myself on putting the needs of others above my own.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is rolling out its own plan to replace Representative Andy Ogles in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District race. According to Axios, the DCCC’s decision to target Ogles’ seat was made before the congressman took aim at Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell. On the campaign trail, the national Democratic Party hopes to exploit vulnerabilities shaped by various scandals associated with Ogles’ tenure.
DEVELOPMENT
- Outlaw Saloon On The Way To Pie Town (What Now)
- Pizza restaurant slated for Belmont Boulevard (Post)
- Music Row-area apartment building sells for $6.22M (Post)
- WeHo shipping container apartment complex sells for $19M (Post)
✹ MOST WANTED ILLEGAL OF THE DAY
Venezuelan national Tony Gebian Lopez-Infante, who entered the country illegally in 2023 and was ordered to leave by a judge in September 2024, hit a man with a rental vehicle and then vanished last month. God willing, he self-deported. Until then, he’s wanted by state and federal authorities. (More Info)
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 Geese @ The Blue Room, 7p, $34.77, Info
🎸 Outside Dog / Really Regular / Plastic Moon @ The East Room, 8p, $13.36, Info
🎸 Elizabeth Moen w/ Bats @ The Basement, 7p, $19.78, Info
💀 Tennessee Dead @ Tennessee Brew Works, 6p, Info
🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Jerod Hollyfield (Crowd Corner), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).