The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of LGBT activists who say Murfreesboro discriminates against them.
Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), founder and host of the annual BoroPride Festival, is the plaintiff in the case, which says that a city ordinance designed to keep drag shows out of public places violates the First and 14th Amendments.
“First, the City put in place a discriminatory policy, prohibiting TEP from obtaining permits to host its annual BoroPride Festival and any other events on City property,” the lawsuit claims. “Then, it enacted a discriminatory ordinance meant to drive TEP and the City’s LGBTQ+ community—and, in particular, its drag performers—out of the City’s public spaces.”
The lawsuit arises from the September 2022 BoroPride event, scheduled at the city’s Cannonsburgh Village, a public venue.
“Leading up to the 2022 BoroPride Festival, Murfreesboro City officials, including Mayor Shane McFarland, received emails urging them to cancel the festival and falsely complaining that drag shows, which would be part of the event, necessarily entailed ‘indecent behavior’ that ‘exploits,’ ‘harms’ and ‘contributes to the sexualization’ of children and exposes them to lewd and obscene acts,'” the lawsuit says.
Still, the pride event went on as scheduled on September 7, 2022.
But, the ACLU says, backlash from an email and social media campaign aimed at Murfreesboro leaders, including McFarland, caused the city to ban future pride events at that location after videos of drag queens dancing for children were circulated online.
City Manager Craig Tindall was allegedly given authority to deny permits for future pride parades for TEP and did just that when TEP applied for a permit for the BoroPride event in 2023.
The event was hosted at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in lieu of its usual location.
“These actions, which were driven by animus against the LGBTQ+ community, are blatantly unconstitutional,” according to the lawsuit. “Nonetheless, despite being aware that its actions were unconstitutional, the City took them anyway, intentionally disregarding the rights of its constituents. TEP brings this action to vindicate its rights and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community it represents under the law.”
The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The case follows the same pattern as another ACLU lawsuit against Blount County, which was filed in September.
Blount County is seeking to enforce a legislative ban drag on shows in spaces where children could view them, but the ACLU says that, too, is unconstitutional.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on X / Twitter.
