Local event announcement spurs controversy

Published 7:30 am Saturday, October 1, 2022

Depot Park is frequently home for many of Cullman’s community events: the Strawberry Festival is held there each spring, the area is sectioned off once a month throughout the summer for the Chamber of Commerce’s 2nd Friday event and currently, there are a sea of German flags adorning the park for the city’s Oktoberfest celebration.

It is the event scheduled for next weekend that has sparked local controversy as organizers prepare to celebrate national Coming Out Day, Oct. 11, several days in advance at the Cullman Comes Out event planned for Oct. 8, with the permit approved by Cullman City Council in September.

Organizers Matthew Sanford and Gilly Shine say they are no strangers to the isolation that can come from growing up different in a small, conservative town. Gilly is gay and Sanford is bisexual and biracial, and both said they struggled to find a space where they felt like they belonged.

Despite this, they each harbor a deeply rooted love for the town in which they grew up and are now aiming to provide others like themselves a sense of belonging that they never experienced.

Sanford and his band, Hassleinone, have been actively involved in a string of charitable shows — the band organized a show to raise money to donate to the construction of the City of Cullman’s skatepark and performed another where the admission fee was a donation of school supplies for local students — and is now focusing that same mentality to deliver a message of inclusion and acceptance.

“It’s like the main reason why we’ve done all the other charity shows we’ve done. We just want to bring people together. and why we picked Cullman: Well, I grew up here and Gilly grew up here, so it only makes sense that we try making this place a more acceptable place for everyone,” Sanford said. “Growing up, I mean obviously I was never accepted in any friend group whatsoever. and I always told myself as a kid that if I ever had a platform as a musician, I wanted to use that platform to encourage other kids to be themselves and not to be afraid to be themselves. Especially if the area you’re in does make you afraid; don’t be, because other people will follow that.”

Gilly has created a platform of his own through social media. As a self-described “voice for the weirdos and the freaks,” nearly half a million followers on TikTok have heard Gilly’s messages highlighting LGBTQ+ and autism awareness. But Gilly said that the positivity that he hopes to spread through his online accounts has not always been returned to him from his neighbors. “There’s people that tell me get out of this town and to go back to wherever I’m from. I’m from here, I’ve lived here my whole damn life.”

To Gilly and Sanford, their town is more than the story their childhood experiences tell, it is a melting pot overflowing with people from all walks of life that despite being under represented in the past are in need of being celebrated.

“There’s a lot of diversity here, and really talented people who are doing all of these amazing things converging in this teeny-tiny town. and I know all of these people. I’ve lived here my whole life; it’s my home, and I want my home to be a safe and accepting place for everybody,” Gilly said.

Soon after the announcement of the Oct. 8 event, debate began online with residents offering both support and anger for the event. Leigh-Ann Courington — a history professor at Wallace State Community College — described the event as the work of the devil in an online post to her personal Facebook account, continuing to call for the “you-know-who to put an end to this foolishness” and claiming that there were many benefits to the “sundown ordinances” of the 1960s and ‘70s.

Courington has since deleted her Facebook account and been placed on administrative leave by WSCC pending further investigation. A statement sent out by WSCC President Vicki Karolewics reads: “Wallace State has made a sustained, conscious commitment to learning that transforms lives and communities in a positive and meaningful way through student-centered and supportive learning environments, teaching excellence and respect for uniqueness and diversity, which are at the very essence of our mission. Wallace State was named a Caring Campus by the institute for Evidence-Based Change several years ago, and that designation is based in part on the holistic services, welcoming environment and sense of acceptance students find here, and on our work toward diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Our efforts to create an inclusive, caring campus will always be ongoing. This incident is a reminder that we must never think this work is done.”

Attempts by The Times to reach Courington for comment were unsuccessful.

Sanford said that he anticipated to experience some adverse response to the event but was not prepared for the amount that there has been.

“I was expecting a little bit of backlash, but the amount we’ve gotten. … I would have never imagined all the interviews and all the, like the teacher from Wallace speaking up like that, I would have never really guessed,” he said.

Gilly; however, was not as surprised: “If you’ve been weird and gay on the internet for long enough, you know. … When you tell people you’re from here, there’s a reaction. and it’s not fair because I do love this town so much, and I always have.”

Gilly and Sanford said that their message of inclusivity is not only for those who are like them, but that “sunshine is for everybody” including their naysayers.

“My goal is for people to be so unerringly themselves that there’s no question as to what their true intentions are,” Gilly said.

As of press time, the event has more than 150 people listed as planning to attend, leaving Gilly to offer the same message to those who disagree with him that he offers to his online followers: “I’m so excited to make a hundred new friends and the community support has just been amazing. For those that disagree: We’ll change their hearts, we’ll change their minds, we are gonna’ shine.”