Tennessee Republicans keep losing court battles with drag queens

While Tennessee Republicans have done their best to vilify drag queens and ban drag shows, they keep getting knocked back by judges who rule that the bans are unconstitutional.

The city of Murfreesboro became the latest municipality to find out the hard way when a federal judge blocked their attempt to interfere with a local Pride festival.

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Tennessee sued over the city’s efforts to silence a local LGBTQ+ organization, including a city-wide policy denying the group permits to host events and a local ordinance banning drag performances.

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The lawsuit accused the city of Murfreesboro of “flagrant and ongoing violations of TEP’s constitutional rights to free speech and expression, due process, and equal protection under the law.”

“Since at least October 2022, the City has engaged in a targeted campaign to silence TEP’s speech in support of the Murfreesboro LGBTQ+ community,” the suit claimed. “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. 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. These actions, which were driven by animus against the LGBTQ+ community, are blatantly unconstitutional.”

“We are relieved that the court has taken action to ensure that Murfreesboro’s discriminatory ordinance will not be enforced during the BoroPride festival. We look forward to a safe, joyful celebration of Murfreesboro’s LGBTQ+ community,” Tennessee Equality Project Executive Director Chris Sanders said in a statement.

Several other cities have made efforts to discriminate against LGBTQ+ groups and Pride festivals, but the efforts have consistently failed.

The attendance at Blount Pride Fest doubled from last year after a Tennessee attorney general threatened to prosecute the event’s drag performers.

A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump ruled against Tennessee’s ban on drag performances, saying that the law is both “unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad,” that it will encourage “discriminatory enforcement,” and that it violates the First Amendment’s free speech protections.

“There is no question that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. But there is a difference between material that is ‘obscene’ in the vernacular, and material that is ‘obscene’ under the law,” Judge Thomas Parker ruled in June. “Simply put, no majority of the Supreme Court has held that sexually explicit — but not obscene — speech receives less protection than political, artistic, or scientific speech.”