‘Chilling’ drag restrictions passed in Tennessee city, suit says. ‘Back into the closet’

A Tennessee city ordinance is facing legal backlash for targeting drag performances, according to a recent lawsuit.

The Tennessee Equality Project, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, along with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, filed a lawsuit against the city of Murfreesboro for its “two-front assault” on local LGBTQ+ rights, according to the Oct. 6 complaint. The lawsuit lists the prohibition of the group’s annual Pride event and an ordinance aimed at restricting drag performances as examples of the city’s “unconstitutional” actions, the lawsuit says.

Tennessee Equality Project is also represented by Burr & Forman LLP out of Nashville and Ballard Spahr LLP in New York City.

The complaint joins several other lawsuits filed around the country related to LGBTQ+ issues, including restrictions on gender-affirming care and drag performances.

A state law in Tennessee that restricted drag performances on public property was ruled unconstitutional in June by a federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump, CNN reported. The judge, Thomas Parker, described the law as “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.”

Tennessee Equality Project Executive Director Chris Sanders said ”more people are speaking out” against legislation targeting LGBTQ people. Sanders told McClatchy News in an email there is still a “mixture of outrage and fear” among the LGBTQ community.

“I never thought progress would be a simple linear process. The speed and intensity of the reaction to our community’s gains in recent years have been jarring, though,” Sanders said. “It’s one thing to anticipate that there will be a reaction. It’s quite another to live through it.”

In 2023, a record number of more than 520 anti-LGBTQ bills were filed in state legislatures across the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Seventy of those bills were enacted so far this year, per the campaign.

In the past few years, ACLU of Tennessee Legal Director Stella Yarbrough told McClatchy News there’s been a “huge increase in anti-LGBTQ+ efforts.”

“They couch it in terms of trying to protect children, and that’s just wrong and it plays on really old, disgusting tropes about homosexuality,” Yarbrough said. “It’s unfortunate we’re in 2023 and we’re still debating these same topics, but here we are.”

The reason behind the lawsuit against the city of Murfreesboro started almost a year ago when officials with Tennessee Equality Project said they were continuously delayed in getting a permit for the annual Pride event. The lawsuit was “a long time coming,” Yarbrough said.

Murfreesboro city officials did not respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 10.

What the lawsuit says

The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee says Murfreesboro violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments with its ordinance that furthered restrictions on “indecent behavior,” which included drag performances, per the city.

In the 67-page complaint, the plaintiffs discuss a yearlong process to obtain a permit for the annual BoroPride event, which had nearly 7,000 attendees in 2022. The event was held in the city’s “historic Cannonsburgh Village” outside, which was vital to allowing LGBTQ+ community to express themselves freely, the lawsuit says.

In previous years, getting a permit for BoroPride took a few weeks, Sanders said in an email.

Following the 2022 BoroPride, city officials began to receive opposition to the event, particularly to drag performers, from a “small, but vocal, email and social media campaign,” according to the lawsuit. Complaints sent to officials including Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland said drag shows at the event were harming children, per the suit.

The lawsuit notes that initially McFarland told those opposed that the city did not “have the authority to stop someone’s freedom of speech or right to gather,” but later changed course. Tennessee Equality Project also received a letter from city manager Craig Tindall that stated BoroPride violated city ordinances due to it being “clearly unsuitable for ‘all ages,’” the lawsuit says.

The group denies in the lawsuit that any lewd behavior took place at the 2022 event.

In preparation for its next installment of BoroPride in 2023, Tennessee Equality Project sent a permit request for the event. After six months with no answer, the group received a response from Tindall saying the organization failed to provide “specific and concrete steps” to avoid sexual drag performances, according to the lawsuit.

Despite ongoing negotiations involving the ACLU, the city did not issue the permit for the requested location, the lawsuit says, causing organizers to choose a different spot for the Pride event.

The group ran into further problems when the city passed an ordinance in June that the lawsuit says targets drag performers.

What the Murfreesboro city ordinance says

On June 15, the Murfreesboro City Council passed an ordinance related to “community decency standards” in a vote of 5-1, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit argues the recent ordinance is “vague and sweeping broad” in its definition of “indecent behavior,” which impacts drag performers.

Among the “indecent behavior” listed in the ordinance, “sexual conduct” is listed as a violation of the city’s decency policies, according to the ordinance. Homosexuality is listed as an example in the city code definition of “sexual conduct.”

With homosexuality being listed in city code as a potential violation of “community decency standards,” anything from drag performances to a same-sex couple holding hands could be interpreted as breaking the ordinance, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs argue the ordinance is unconstitutional and the previous city code naming homosexuality as “sexual conduct” should be revoked.

“In short, through these unconstitutional actions, the City has engaged in a concerted effort to push drag performers, TEP and the City’s LGBTQ+ community at large back into the closet, where they will be out of sight from the community, behind closed doors, and only visible to a limited audience,” the lawsuit says.

BoroPride to be held this year

Tennessee Equality Project plans to put on this year’s BoroPride, Sanders said in an email. The event is scheduled for Oct. 28 at Miller Coliseum in Murfreesboro.

“The LGBTQ community needs to come together and celebrate our strength in the face of so many legislative attacks in Tennessee and around the country,” Sanders said.

Making sure the Pride event continues as planned is important for cities like Murfreesboro because of its large population, Sanders said. It’s the sixth largest city in Tennessee with about 160,000 people, according to Tennessee Demographics, and is about 35 miles southeast of Nashville.

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