Gaston County removes photo of men kissing from museum exhibit during Pride month

A photograph taken at a Pride event that was part of the Gaston County Museum of Art and History's photography exhibition was taken down shortly after the exhibit opened after a directive from the county manager.

Grant Baldwin, the freelance photojournalist who took the photo, said that the photo was taken at a 2019 Charlotte Pride event, which Charlotte Pride hired him to photograph. In the photo, Baldwin captured the moment after a man proposed to his partner.

Baldwin was asked along with several other photographers in the region to submit photographs that he felt were representative of his work for the museum exhibit, which explores the history of photography and highlights photographers from Gaston County and the surrounding area.

Gaston County said in a statement that after reviewing the photograph, County Manager Kim Eagle told museum staff to work with the photographer to find an alternative photograph to display "that would be more considerate of differing viewpoints in the community."

"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," the county said in a statement.

The decision to remove the photo "was an internal decision under the manager’s purview, and did not involve the Board of Commissioners. The museum is government-funded, and as such, it is important for the items it shares to be informational without championing political issues. As a public administrator, there is a delicate balance between the effort to foster an inclusive workplace and community, while avoiding political advocacy," the county said in a statement release Tuesday night.

Baldwin said his impression is that the museum is "caught in a difficult position."

"(The museum) pushed back on that decision but had to do what the county required of them," he said.

Chad Brown, chair of the Gaston County Board of Commissioners, said county administration has a right to dictate content at the museum, as the county funds the museum, and museum employees are county staff.

"If someone is using the county shield toward something, then yes, the county has the rights and the liability to go on with it," he said.

"If they want to do it themselves, they're more than welcome. We'll be glad to pull out today if we need to," Brown said of county funding for the museum.

Robert Kellogg, a member of the Gastonia City Council who is gay, said that removing the photo from the exhibit sends two messages.

"First, the message to the LGBTQ community is one of wanting to exclude them from what any other citizen would be able to participate in or be able to enjoy or be able to be a part of in Gaston County. So it's really a message of exclusion," Kellogg said. "For the rest of Gaston County, it's a message of, 'We know better than you what's for you.' It's a message of censorship."

Kellogg said that he finds the removal of the photograph from the museum troubling.

"Museums are supposed to be places where people can explore and learn and be creative and sometimes see things that may not be part of their normal, regular routine," he said. "That's what museums are for. It's really troubling on many, many fronts, because it's so much ado about nothing, really."

He said that removing the photo during Pride Month, a month dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, doesn't feel like a coincidence.

"I don't know the circumstances around it, but it feels very much like a calculated move to send a message to individuals in our county who are part of a marginalized group. And that message is not a new message. That's a very old message that has been loud and clear in Gaston County for decades," he said. "And we have made progress. We really have. That's why it's so disheartening to see this happen today because it's reminiscent of the type of thing that happened five, 10, 15 years ago.

Clark Simon, who is the president of the board of directors for Charlotte Pride but happens to live in Gastonia, said that removing the photo "showcases the visibility of individuals within the community. You know, we might be different in some elements, but we are still integral members in the community. I always like to say, we are in every boardroom. We're in every classroom," he said. Taking that away "overlooks a large swath of the population that is in our community, doing the work, helping out, being neighbors, being parents, being friends," he said. "So to have it removed is trying to cover up something that everybody already knows is part of our community as a whole."

He said that removing the photograph feels like a step back in time — "that we're going back to the 1950s and '60s and that the county doesn't want to project an image of inclusivity and acceptance."

Baldwin said that the photo taken at the Pride event was not the only photo of his that Gaston County officials didn't want in the exhibition.

A different photo, one depicting Gaston County deputies arresting a Black woman during a protest near the Confederate monument in front of the courthouse, was rejected before the exhibition went up. Baldwin said that Gaston County officials told the museum that they didn't want it in the exhibition because it pictured county employees.

"My approach in capturing these images was not to provide any sort of advocacy, but simply to record what was there," Baldwin said.

Reporter Kara Fohner can be reached at 704-869-1850 or at kfohner@gannett.com. Support local journalism by subscribing here.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Gaston County Museum of Art and History men kissing photo taken down