Fired Employee And The Wonder Years Comment On Rocketown Controversy

January 25th, 2013

Grant Trimboli

Expanding on the events taking place at Rocketown earlier this week, both the man fired from the venue and pop-punk outfit The Wonder Years have commented with their direct thoughts on the controversy. Wes was fired for wearing the Hostage Calm band t-shirt stating “I Support Same-Sex Marriage”. Read both statements below and offer your opinion through the jump.

Note from The Wonder Years:
“The greater issue here to me is that Rocketown is meant to be a safe and constructive place for the youth of Nashville. This hard stance against equality is troubling, and I’m deeply saddened for any LGBT youth that attend Rocketown for any reason, concert or otherwise, that may now be upset and confused by why this center, that is meant to be a positive place for them, has now taken action to show that they feel that LGBT people are lesser and don’t deserve the same rights.

Obviously, not all Christians are anti-gay. The staff we’ve worked with at Rocketown—both Christian and non-Christian, Wes included—have always been welcoming and understanding. I’ve had long conversations with them about issues like these over dinner a number of times, and I have a lot of respect for them for looking at their religion critically and letting their morality and logic guide them. It’s because of this open-mindedness we were always happy and excited to support Rocketown and made it a point to play there over other [venues] a number of times.

In the future, I sincerely doubt that my band and many like ours will perform at this venue. Did they have the right to fire Wes? Maybe, from a legal standpoint. Does that mean that I should continue to bring revenue into an organization that is vocally anti-gay rights? Absolutely not.

I imagine Wes will end up as the talent buyer at another venue. I imagine =a lot of shows will shift to that venue, and I imagine a new chapter beginning for this scene in Nashville.”

Note from fired employee: