LOOGOOTEE, Ind. — A city in southwest Indiana is being sued by a civil rights activist group that claims leaders intentionally blocked a Pride Festival from happening this year.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a suit Thursday in US District Court against the City of Loogootee, a small town of around 2,600 people in Martin County. The ACLU filed the suit on behalf of local PrideFest 2024 sponsors.
The ACLU claims in the lawsuit that the Loogootee City Council has rescinded prior approval for the festival, changed the application process for using city property and failed to vote on approving PrideFest’s new application.
The Loogootee Pride Festival was first held in June 2023 at the Public Square, a piece of city-owned property in the center of the town, with around 200 people in attendance. The event came one year after Pride decorations hung around the town caused outrage in 2022.
Organizers expected that the event would again happen in 2024, the ACLU said.
The ACLU and Patoka Valley AIDS Community Action Group, the organizers of PrideFest, claim that the Loogootee City Council first approved this year’s festivities back in November 2023. The lawsuit says the council then passed two new ordinances that changed application processes to use the Public Square and went back on the approval.
Despite this, the ACLU claims Patoka Valley sent a new application in February and said organizers attended each subsequent city council meeting. In meetings held in March, April and May, the ACLU says Council members never discussed or voted on the issue.
“Another event, Summer Fest, is scheduled to be held in the Public Square later this month, apparently without the organizers of that event even applying for a permit,” the ACLU claims.
In the lawsuit filed Thursday, the ACLU and Patoka Valley urge the court to “enjoin” the Loogootee’s Special Events Ordinance to allow PrideFest 2024 to occur on Sept. 7 in the Public Square.
“The City of Loogootee’s revocation of its November 2023 permission to hold PrideFest 2024 and its actions since that time violate the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” ACLU of Indiana Director Ken Falk said. “The latest city special events ordinance is unconstitutional in many ways. It, and the actions of the City Council, clearly indicate that Councilmembers are trying to deny our plaintiffs the ability to hold their event because they disagree with a celebration of the LGBTQ community.”
FOX59/CBS4 has reached out to representatives for the City of Loogootee for comment and has not heard back as of 1 p.m. Thursday. To read the ACLU’s full lawsuit filing, click here.
