Video of a woman defacing a mural of the pride flag in Alcoa, Tennessee has gone viral, prompting calls for her firing from a local hospital.
Teen artists Jasmine Martinez and Carmen McClain painted a mural of the pride and transgender flags on a local bridge known for displaying communal artwork. As they did so, a woman–later identified as Tabitha Dardeau Travis of Maryville–began verbally harassing the teen girls for depicting the flag.
After insulting the girls–including using racially charged language, claiming they’re not citizens–Travis produces her own cans of spray paint.
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“I’m taking over. I’ve just as much right as you,” Travis says in the footage. She then begins spray painting over the murals. “Actually, I have more damn right. I work, I pay taxes. I’m an American–born here.”
“I’m sick of y’all’s sh*t,” Travis rants. “Y’all are constantly–it’s constantly something. You’re always trying to stand out and make a big friggin’ scene. If you’d only shut up…”
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“We’re making a scene?” one of the girls interjects, incredulous.
“Yeah, all you want to do is express,” Travis charges.
The footage ends there. Instinct reports that McClain initially posted the video to her TikTok account before removing it. That didn’t stop the footage from going viral across several social media platforms, including Twitter, prompting various commentators to call for Travis’ firing from her job at Blount Memorial Hospital.
Meanwhile, members of the community showed up to retouch the murals on the bridge, with some even standing by to guard it. That didn’t stop one anonymous vandal from parking his truck and defacing the mural while local NBC News reporters covered the story. The vandalism was caught on camera.
Still, McClain and Martinez remain undeterred.
“We’re not going to stop,” McClain told reporters. “People are probably going to paint over this bridge again. And we’re going to come back. And we’re going to paint over it.”
Mr. Stadnick
Tabitha Dardeau Travis should be ashamed of herself. I hope she is properly shunned in her community for being so anti-social and bigoted. She seems to be a bit of a racist too. She says she has to children so she is bring shame on them too.
Bengali
I hope we can find her Insta and make her life even more miserable. We should make an example of each and every Karen and while we’re at it every Caitlyn Jenner aka BruceLyn Kardashian (Olympic has been).
Josh in OR
Ahhhhhh, Karens…Cishet white privilege in it’s most petty form…
Chrisk
I was shocked to find out that Tabitha isn’t just a homophobe but a racist too. Lol
doodleboi
Shocked I tell you, simply shocked!
bsg1967
Noooo, I’m shook.
Larry
She been fired yet for shitting in her employer because that is what she did?
BoomerMyles
Hope she’s fired..
Won’t be long till she’s doxxed and really regret her actions.
stanhope
Until these heifers (i like it more than karens) they will continue…she should be fired and hopefully people will blow up her social media accounts. Teach her a lesson she so sorely needs to learn.
ShiningSex
People are so ignorant. I woud have gladly punched that old hag in the face.
Also, i hate the updated pride flag with black and brown colors simply because the original pride flag is not about “race”. People need to understand what the colors that are there represent. All of us in the community. Not a specific race. I’m a person of color and don’t get that part of it. I
We should all be equal in our community but sadly there are a lot of racist a**holes in our community too. I get that.
Leave the original pride flag alone and lets us all embrace all people in our community including our trans brothers and sisters. We should be ONE COMMUNITY SUPPORTING EACH OTHER!
ardeshmole
Thank you I feel the same way
Leash
“We should be ONE COMMUNITY SUPPORTING EACH OTHER!”
But the alternative LGBT+ flag or progress flag is a way to show support? So why are you so against it? I’m a white guy and i don’t give a fck about added colors, why do you? You can just use the regular one if you want to. To quote the great Michelle Visage “Its… a piece of fabric”.
stanhope
Uncle, what you said is inconsistent. Support the entire community but you have a problem with the flag that represents that very thing? Uncle, as Maya Angelou said..when you know better, you do better. “Gay” initially was essentially white gay men, or so media would have us believe. Where were lesbians, people of color, and always last, trans people? Uncle did it occur to you that Stonewall, generally thought the birth of the gay rights movement, was started by mostly trans people of color? I like to think, at least some of us, know better now. So uncle, take a step back, learn some history, perhaps even you will find some enlightenment and can get off the rice box….Jemima got off the pancake box so anything is possible.
CaptainChaos
I used to agree with you. I’m white, but before I was married, I dated men of every ethnicity. I love everyone! I’ve always felt our flag covered all of us. But, I actually really like the new Pride Progress Flag. It’s a much better design than just sticking more bars on the old one.
amanwithanedge
STOP INJECTING RACE INTO THE FLAG.
Leash
@amanwithanedge Things change grandpa, i know its scary, but no one is holding a gun to your head forcing you to use the newer one. It’s just a ALTERNATIVE flag to show support to queer POC (and the “progressive flag” also includes special support to trans folk).
If you can: Take a step back, take a deep breath, and ask yourself why you REALLY have such a big problem with it.
Seriously my dude, this reminds me of when conservatives argue against same sex marriage, why do you feel like the alternative flag or the progressive flag is taking something from you? It’s not! It’s an addition!
startenout
Thank you @Leash! He sounds just like the people who complain about reactions to the American flag: just because he chooses to not let the problem affect him does not mean that it isn’t a problem.
brianfpan
LEASH … “grandpa” You use the same ad hominems you decry in others, you hypocrite.
Mack
There are reports on other sites that she was fired from her hospital job because of this video. Don’t know that’s it true, but that’s what being reported. She’s just another southerner projecting her bigotry and hatred.
mozzer
Inbred trailer white trash figures she’d go after the girls perceived ethnicity.
Zorba123
You know, every time I see a reference to white trailer trash, I feel offended. Not because of the fact that there are white trailer trash but the fact that I live in a mobile home community which is anything but trash. Please think about what you’re writing. It’s offensive to the people to do live in trailer homes but love everything the LGBTQ+ community represents.
Tombear
I heard Travis has already been fired. Maybe this came out after you published the story. And to Travis I say oh well.
mz.sam
@Tombear, thanks for the update. Activists should rainbow paint Travis’s house in righteous equivalence. Go Proud Community!
fredk3
that rattling sound you kept hearing when the spray can was being shaken was actually Tabitha Dardeau Travis’s solitary brain cell.
Fname Optional Lname
THIS!
Leash
“I don’t give a shit” says woman who went into a store to buy bottles of spray cans to go and harass two girls and paint over a harmless pride flag.
“I’m sick of y’all” well guess what, the feeling is mutual, but we have to make this work.
Consider This
Travis has a brilliant future in PR – one can just tell…
wwb
Tabitha sure put the C*nt back in Country Dumb F*ck baby.
And, BTW, I use the term C*nt for males and females.
This racist homophobic, ignorant, piece of unfortunate space has no place working in healthcare which must be compassionate, inclusive and healing. She MUST be fired—her behavior and actions have consequences.
How dare she degrade, bully, demean, denounce and threaten these young ladies for positively expressing their PRIDE.