Lifetime; iStockPETA's attempt to get gay pride organizers in Atlanta to move their annual kick-off party from the Georgia Aquarium is dead in the water.
Yesterday, we exclusively revealed that Tim Gunn sent a letter via the animal rights group to the Atlanta Pride Committee urging them to relocate the bash because the party noise is "deeply disturbing and unnerving to the sound-sensitive beluga whales" at the aquatic facility.
And now Atlanta Pride is fighting back.
"At the core, Mr. Gunn's letter is the latest one produced as part of an orchestrated and highly misleading media campaign conducted against Georgia Aquarium by PETA as part of its stated anti-zoo-and-aquarium agenda," the group's executive director Buck Cooke writes in a letter to E! News. "Sadly, they have targeted Atlanta Pride and our annual event out of the hundreds of events held at Georgia Aquarium each year.
Cooke says Atlanta Pride is confident that the aquarium provides "exceptional care for their animals." He also said that the aquarium "aggressively protects animals."
"It remains astonishing as to why an organization proclaiming itself as one of the nation's largest animal rights groups would continually dilute its platform by propagating misinformation," Cooke writes in the letter. "At the receipt of Mr. Gunn's letter, it is very discouraging to see that they are continuing to misinform their longtime celebrity supporters, in what is seems to be an opportunistic publicity stunt."
Atlanta Pride says Gunn has an open invitation to attend the party and meet with aquarium officials.