Getting Them Where It Counts

In their pocketbook, a court found in our favor.

ACLU settles for $500k with a Tennessee city in fight over an anti-drag ordinance

The Washington Post

By Kimberlee Kruesi | AP

February 7, 2024

A Tennessee city must pay $500,000 as part of a settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups over an ordinance designed to ban drag performances from taking place on public property, attorneys announced Wednesday.

Last year, the Tennessee Equality Project — a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights — filed a federal lawsuit after Murfreesboro leaders announced they would no longer be approving any event permit requests submitted by the organization. At the time, the city alleged that the drag performances that took place during TEP’s 2022 Pride event resulted in the “illegal sexualization of kids.”

An AP article about the case back in October the drag show…

A federal judge has temporarily blocked city officials in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from enforcing an ordinance designed to ban drag performances from taking place on public property.

An order issued Friday by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. bars the city from enforcing the ordinance during the BoroPride Festival scheduled for next weekend.

The judge’s order came in a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee on behalf of the Tennessee Equality Project, a nonfprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights and has hosted the BoroPride Festival since 2016. The order said the city of Murfreesboro — located about 34 miles (55 kilometers) south of Nashville — and the equality project reached an agreement that the city will not enforce the ordinance during the Oct. 28 festival.

The results of that trail was the $500,000, according to the Washington Post the judge said,

“The government has no right to censor LGBTQ+ people and expression,” said attorneys for the ACLU, ACLU of Tennessee, Ballard Spahr, and Burr & Forman in a joint statement. “More important than the monetary recovery, this settlement sends a clear message that the city’s discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community was blatantly unconstitutional and that this type of behavior will no longer be tolerated here — or anywhere across the country.”