(ABC 6 News) – The city of Plainview’s first ever Pride Festival has drawn both support and criticism from members of the community, some of which has pushed the organizers to reconsider aspects of the event.

Anthony McClellan, owner of the Atelier@1901 event hall, and his husband have called Plainview home for a long time.

That’s why they made it their mission to bring a Pride celebration to the city they’ve established roots in for years.

So, the couple teamed up with their friend and fellow business owner, Annie Jurrens of Refill Goods, and began preparing to hose the event between their two venues.

“We are having performers from Minneapolis, Rochester, Austin come down and perform two drag shows,” said McClellan. “And one of them is actually a story hour.”

“We’re also having vendors, like a p-flag group will be here and other queer artists,” said Jurrens.

Once they started advertising however, things began to take a turn when the chief of police started hearing feedback.

“About a week and a half ago,” said McClellan, “he was starting to get messages in his inbox saying, ‘Why are you letting this happen? Why are you letting these people into our town? Shut this down.'”

Some of the strongest opposition has come from local churches, whose members have organized a time of prayer, during Saturday’s events, at a nearby park in protest.

That gathering isn’t being organized by the churches themselves, rather their congregations, but that isn’t what is giving McClellan and Jurrens cause for concern: it’s the messaging.

According to the weekly calendar and announcements from the local Lutheran church, the time of prayer is to ask God to “defend us from these false prophets and bring them to repentance and faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

“Using language like that,” said Jurrens, “talking about ‘defending our town,’ talking about ‘false prophets,’ it’s language that makes people in the queer community, makes people that are coming to our events not feel safe.”

Which has forced them to move the event completely indoors, and bring on extra security that was donated to them by the Twin Cities Pride organization.

Nevertheless, McClellan and Jurrens hope the town’s first Pride can bring people together more than divide.

“There’s people all over this state that are traveling to Plainview to visit and see what’s happen here,” said McClellan. “So we’re very excited because this opens the door for community and that’s what we’re all about.”