A Tennessee city settled with the ACLU on Wednesday, agreeing to pay $500,000 for the harm caused by its anti-drag ordinance and policy. The city of Murfreesboro agreed to repeal the ordinance, which was designed to ban drag performances on public property, and end the policy that denied all special event permit requests from the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Tennessee Equality Project (TEP).
The city implemented its ban in June, claiming that drag performances during TEP’s Pride event in 2022 resulted in the “illegal sexualization of kids.” The ACLU, along with the ACLU of Tennessee, Ballard Spahr, and Burr & Forman, filed suit in federal court last October, alleging the ordinance and policy violated the US Constitution’s First Amendment right to free speech and expression. The lawsuit also alleged the ordinance was unconstitutionally broad and vague, and that it discriminated against the LGBTQ+ community and therefore violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the city from enforcing the ordinance in October, and the city responded by amending the ordinance to no longer include “homosexuality” as prohibited “sexual conduct.” The plaintiffs, however, stated that the amendment was not enough. In response, the plaintiffs said, “[W]e will continue to challenge the remaining portions of this anti-LGBTQ+ ordinance until it is permanently defeated, and all residents of Murfreesboro know that their government officials have no right to censor LGBTQ+ people and our expression.”
The parties are now filing a dismissal of the case due to Wednesday’s settlement, bringing the lawsuit to a close. “We celebrate the resolution of this case because it has guaranteed the rollback of a discriminatory policy and affirmed our right to host BoroPride,” said TEP Executive Director Chris Sanders. “Now we can turn our attention to preparing for the 2024 BoroPride festival and defending the rights of LGBTQ+ Tennesseans at the state legislature.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Tennessee has enacted more anti-LGBTQ+ laws than any other state in the country since 2015, making the state “increasingly hostile and unlivable for LGBTQ+ Tennesseans.” The state has seen several challenges to LGBTQ+ rights in the past year, including a law that protects public school employees’ choice to not use a student’s preferred pronouns. In September, a federal judge prohibited Blount County from banning drag performances at a pride festival, and a federal appeals court upheld a state law banning gender-affirming care for minors the same month. The ACLU is currently tracking twenty-nine anti-LGBTQ+ bills in Tennessee for this legislative session.
