A man dressed up as Santa Claus waves to spectators during a holiday parade.
An Alabama LGBTQ+ group has asked a federal judge to issue an injunction over a mayor’s decision to block the group from marching in an annual Christmas parade happening this Sunday. The mayor has said that he excluded the group over safety concerns.
Prattville Pride was the first local group to pay the fee to join the city of Pratville’s annual Christmas parade. The group also said it will abide by the parade’s rules. However, when an anti-LGBTQ+ group called Clean Up Alabama found out about the Pride group’s inclusion, it sent out an email asking its supporters to pressure the parade’s organizers to remove Prattville Pride from the event.
Related:
Clean Up Alabama claimed that Prattville Pride would display transgender Pride flags or drag queens in violation of the parade’s “family friendly” policies against political messaging and “lewd and offensive” entries.
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The town’s Mayor Bill Gillespie initially said the city will “ensure all persons are served and respected equally while maintaining a safe Christmas parade event for us all.” However, on Wednesday, Prattville Pride asked the city for extra security during the parade. Then, on Thursday morning, the city government informed Prattville Pride that it was no longer allowed to participate.
“This morning, it was brought to the City’s attention from Prattville Pride that there are serious safety concerns regarding Prattville Pride’s participation in the Christmas parade,” a statement from Gillespie’s office said, according to WSFA. “Until today, there has only been conjecture and speculation regarding potential safety concerns that Prattville Pride’s participation in the parade may cause.”
“The City will not put the rights of parade participants ahead of the safety of its citizens,” the statement continued. “Because of the safety concerns for Prattville Pride, other parade participants, as well as parade bystanders, the City has made the decision to remove Prattville Pride from the Christmas parade.”
“This decision was made with careful thought and consideration while balancing the rights of parade participants against the overall safety of everyone involved at the parade,” the statement concluded. “The City will always respect freedoms and rights of expression. However, as in this instance, it must put the overall safety of its citizens first.”
In response, Prattville Pride filed for an injunction at a federal court, demanding to be allowed back into the parade. The group said it still plans on building its parade float in the hopes that the court will allow their re-entry.
“We had the purest of intentions in signing up: visibility, representation, offering a fun opportunity for our community to get involved with a tradition in Prattville,” said Prattville Pride’s vice president, Caryl Lawson. “We believe that we have a very strong case. The Constitution supports our case, and we’re very hopeful that the injunction gets approved in time for us to participate.”
Lawson may have a strong case. In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston, that a private group that organized the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston couldn’t be forced to include an LGBTQ+ group whose views it disagreed with, even though the parade occurred on the city streets.
In this case, the Christmas parade’s organizers aren’t a private group but a municipal government, and governments in the U.S. aren’t supposed to exclude groups for political viewpoints because it would violate the Constitution’s free speech amendment (just as long as the groups follow whatever other participatory rules set forth).
Prattville has a population of 39,318, 67.74% of its population is white, and 20.93% is Black.
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