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(CN) — After a hearing for an emergency injunction Friday morning, a federal judge in Alabama granted an emergency motion for an injunction against the city of Prattville, after the mayor banned an LGBTQ rights organization from participating.
Prattville Pride was initially awarded a parade permit, but it was revoked amid community pushback, threats and safety concerns from group members.
During a telephone hearing Friday morning before U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, the parties clarified the relatively minor nature of the threats, while the city acknowledged it would not be burdened by providing the group with a light police escort. Late Friday, Huffaker issued an order enjoining the city from prohibiting the group’s participation and requiring the city to provide a law enforcement escort.
Huffaker, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote “the First Amendment protects the expression that marching in a parade entails.”
“The city removed Prattville Pride from the parade based on its belief that certain members of the public who oppose Prattville Pride and what it stands for would react in a disruptive way,” Huffaker continued. “But discrimination based on a message’s content ‘cannot be tolerated under the First Amendment’ and viewers or ‘listener’s reaction to speech is not a content-neutral basis for regulation. Thus, the court finds that the city’s decision to remove Prattville Pride from the parade is based on content and speech.”
Huffaker further found Prattville Pride demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of the case and the group would suffer irreparable injury if they were not allowed to participate.
Prattville Pride, which formed in 2024 and hosted the city’s inaugural pride festival in June, filed its First Amendment lawsuit against the city on Thursday after it withdrew permission for the organization to march, citing “safety concerns” later raised by the organization itself
According to the complaint, once word of the organization’s participation spread, the city, mayor and city council all received messages of opposition. At a city council meeting on Tuesday, several residents expressed intolerance for the group.
Caryl Lawson, vice president and co-founder of Pratville Pride, told the council the group had been subjected to “hateful pushback and rhetoric.” On social media forums, there have been suggestions the group will be clad in lingerie or will toss sex toys and LGBTQ literature to children along the parade route. There were also threats to vandalize the group’s float or toss objects including “rotten tomatoes” at members of the organization.
Lawson said more than 3,000 people attended the group’s inaugural pride festival, demonstrating “a true need for our organization and our advocacy.”
“We are not dangerous, we are disruptive, we are not coming for your children, we are not your enemy,” Lawson said, promising a “respectful” display but acknowledging the group’s float would feature a drag queen in an evening gown.
Under questioning from Council President Pro Tempore Robert Strichik, Lawson ensured there would be no other drag queens or female impersonators, the group would not hand out literature and there would be “no negative displays” concerning Jesus Christ or Christianity. Other group members or supporters said the organization planned a holiday display and to pass out candy.
But several other citizens invoked Jesus Christ and urged the council to keep the parade about Christianity rather than gender identity. To groans from the audience, Prattville Pride president Adam Hunt said it was hypocritical of Christians to oppose inclusivity, and suggested dressing as a drag queen was no different than dressing up as Santa Claus or elves.
Two days after the city council meeting, Lawson emailed the chief of the police department to express additional safety concerns about the parade and to request an escort of two police officers.
“It is apparent that our float and members are at risk of being specifically targeted during this public event,” Lawson wrote. “We are concerned not only with our own safety but that of bystanders and parade goers as well. Having police escorts could be an invaluable deterrent.”
The same day, Mayor Bill Gillespie Jr. pulled the group’s application, releasing a statement that the city “will not put the rights of parade participants ahead of the safety of its citizens.”
“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,” Gillespie wrote. “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 city will always respect freedoms and rights of expression. However, as in this instance, it must put the overall safety of its citizens first.”
The group quickly filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, claiming the city had no legal basis for the decision and that it demonstrated city officials “bowing to the pressure from extremists and hecklers in the community who oppose the views of Prattville Pride.”
Prattville Pride is represented by John Tyler Winans and Julia Collins of The Harris Firm. “This case is not about politics but rather about ensuring that all community members have equal access to public events, as guaranteed under the law,” the firm said in a statement Friday.
Prattville is just north of the state capital Montgomery and has a population of 39,318.
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