The Borderline Dance Team faced a troubling ultimatum: either shed their American flag shirts or forfeit their performance slot altogether. Organizers of the Emerald City Hoedown, an event hosted by the Rain Country Dance Association, a LGBT dance community, deemed the patriotic attire potentially triggering for other attendees.

Lindsay Stamp, co-captain of the Borderline Dance Team, revealed to KTTH host Jason Rantz that a minority of individuals raised concerns about the group’s costumes, citing issues ranging from the Israel-Hamas conflict to transgender rights. Despite emphasizing their patriotism and support for military personnel, veterans, and first responders, the team found themselves at odds with event organizers.

In a defiant move, the Borderline Dance Team detailed their ordeal in a lengthy Facebook post, recounting how they were presented with an ultimatum: either change attire or abandon their performance altogether. Faced with such blatant discrimination, another participating team, West Coast Country Heat, also chose not to perform, standing in solidarity with their counterparts.

The team shared the following message on their Facebook page:

Over the last two days, we have been answering dozens of calls and messages from friends and family. Feelings have ranged all the way from outrage to sympathy to disbelief. We want to make sure there is complete understanding and truth surrounding the events of Saturday.

I’ll try to make this as short as possible. Our Dance Team along with a few others were scheduled to perform at the Emerald City Hoedown in Seattle on Saturday. They’ve been asking us for three years to perform but because of their Covid restrictions, we have been unable to until this year. Dance teams work their boots off preparing for performances like these. Extra practices, babysitters, ferry rides, hours upon hours of practice and commute time and time away from their families. We all were very excited to perform for this event. Unfortunately, what our team was met with upon arrival was that our flag tops were offensive to some of the convention goers. There was a small group that felt “triggered and unsafe”. They had several claims for this reasoning. Mostly associated with the situation in Palestine and the Trans community in America. At first we were told we would just be boo’d, yelled at and likely many of them would walk out. This did not deter us. But then we were given an ultimatum. Remove the flag tops and perform in either street clothes (which most didn’t bring as they traveled there in their uniforms) or they would supply us with ECH shirts from years past… Or, don’t perform at all, which effectively was asking us to leave. Also, here is a link to their website that shows the pictures of our teams in our uniforms. So they would have known what we were going to wear.

We were not alone in this. Our friends, West Coast Country Heat, who were also scheduled to dance for the convention that evening also did not perform 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 put actions to words.

Now, for the silver lining. Firstly, watching these teams band together was the greatest performance I’ve ever seen. These people are strong, resolute and unwavering in their patriotism. They are the families and friends of people who have suffered the unimaginable so that we may all have our own opinions and sleep soundly in our beds at night. THAT is why we wear the colors. Because although we may not always agree with the current state of things, we recognize that being an American means true FREEDOM. We all understood and accepted this and walked out with class and dignity despite the discrimination we had experienced.

Secondly, the support that we got from the majority of the community and even several of the organizers was amazing. We had individuals from ALL walks of life approach us and the message was clear “we want you”. The outpouring of love and respect was inspiring. There was also a lot of disappointment there. Disappointment in the community they are supposed to feel safe in.

Disappointment that the spirit of this event, which is to share our love of country dance, was overshadowed by the political opinions of a small percentage. We only wanted to entertain. We didn’t get to do that but we did get to make new friends and build some bridges that maybe wouldn’t have been possible without this incident.

Ill leave it with this. May you never find yourself in a position where your freedom truly is taken from you. May you always have the choice to agree or disagree with whatever situation you find yourself in. And may you always protect someone else’s freedom to do the same. Whether it be in your favor or not.

We don’t speak for our team, we speak on behalf of them so the choice was theirs. As we knew would happen because there really was no choice in our minds, it was a unanimous NO.

Hi y’all! After the close of another amazing Hoedown weekend, we know there are some questions about the Saturday night performance line-up. We appreciate y’all giving us the time to clear up misunderstandings and address the situation with people directly involved. We will be posting a follow-up statement later this week once we are able to have those conversations.

Responding to criticism on social media, board president Ziadee Cambier attempted to downplay the controversy, asserting that no teams were disqualified or asked to leave. However, the incident has sparked outrage and raised questions about the inclusivity and tolerance of certain segments within the dance community.

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Thanks to our friends at The Gateway Pundit, and ToddStarnes.com for contributing to this article.