Dollywood Offers Refund To Lesbian Couple Asked To Turn Marriage Equality Tee Shirt Inside Out But Refuses Meeting

An update on an earlier post from Monday night, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports that Dollywood officials have offered a refund to a lesbian couple after an employee asked one of the women to turn her tee-shirt inside out to hide the slogan “marriage is so gay,” but park officials called off a meeting with the couple when Jennifer Tipton and Olivier Odom wanted to bring a representative from Campaign for Southern Equality, a gay rights organization. Dollywood park spokesman Pete Owens told the News Sentinel that the park did not want to meet with the representative who was not at the park at the time of the incident. "We consider that this is a situation between Dollywood Splash Country and one of its guests," said Owens. He said the park has a policy of refunding the admission price of any guest who is dissatisfied with his or her visit and the park was refunding the cost for the couple. Odom and Tipton continued on into the park after complying with the gatekeeper. The couple complained after a park worker last month asked Odom to reverse her shirt to avoid offending other visitors. Dolly Parton issued a personal apology late last week.