Blount Pride, Inc. v. Desmond

Blount Pride, Inc. (“Blount Pride”) planned a Pride event that would feature drag performances, including a performance by drag queen Flamy Grant. The event was to occur on September 2, 2023 at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. On August, 29, 2023, four days before the event, District Attorney for Tennessee’s Fifth Judicial District, Ryan Desmond, issued a letter to Blount Pride saying that he would enforce the anti-drag law that had been passed in 2022.

In an effort to protect the free speech rights of drag performers, ACLU-TN and attorneys Brice Timmons, Melissa Stewart, Daniel Horwitz, Melissa Dix, and Justin Gilbert filed a complaint and emergency motion for a temporary restraining order on August 30, 2023 on behalf of Blount Pride and Christian artist and drag performer Flamy Grant.

United States District Court Judge Ronnie Greer, in the Eastern District of Tennessee, granted the temporary restraining order and the Pride event proceeded as planned. Defendants then agreed to a preliminary injunction while a previously filed challenge to the anti-drag law, Friends of George’s v. Mulroy, continued on appeal in the Sixth Circuit.

Blount Pride and Flamy Grant sought to intervene as plaintiffs in the Friends of George’s v. Mulroy appeal, and their motion to intervene was granted. Oral arguments in the appeal were heard on February 1, 2024.

However, on July 18, 2024, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision in the Friends of George case, holding that artistic drag does not violate the AEA and thus, dismissed that lawsuit for lack of standing. As a result, the AEA can now be enforced in Shelby County, as well as the Tennessee counties in which it was never enjoined (a vast majority of the counties in the state). However, the law only prohibits “adult-oriented performances lacking serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for a reasonable 17-year-old,” where minors are in the audience—which does not include artistic drag performances. Friends of George's, Inc. v. Mulroy, 108 F.4th 431 (6th Cir. 2024), cert. denied, 145 S. Ct. 1178 (2025).

As of recently, the AEA can also be enforced in Eastern Tennessee, although it does not prohibit drag as an art form. The AEA was blocked from being enforced in the Eastern Judicial District of Tennessee until the ACLU of Tennessee’s lawsuit was dismissed by a judge for lack of standing on October 24, 2025. However, it is important to remember that drag is still legal throughout Tennessee because it does not meet the very narrow definition of the types of performances courts have found are prohibited under the AEA. As of November 21, 2025, the ACLU of Tennessee and its legal partners have appealed this dismissal for lack of standing to the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

PLAINTIFF(S):

Blount County Pride, Inc.; Michael Lovegood a/k/a Flamy Grant

DEFENDANT(S):

Blount County District Attorney Ryan Desmond and Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp