LOOGOOTEE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — “We just want equality.”
That was the message of Tracy Brown-Salsman following the announcement of a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union against the city of Loogootee over their treatment of the organization attempting to organize the second Pride Fest in the city.
The ACLU claims that Loogootee city officials intentionally blocked a pride festival from happening this year. The group filed the lawsuit in a U.S. District Court on Thursday on behalf of local Pride Fest 2024 sponsors.
WTWO spoke with Tracy Brown-Salsman, the Vice President of the Patoka Valley AIDS Community Action Group, Loogootee Pride is a committee inside the larger group.
When discussing last year’s Pride Fest, Brown-Salsman said it went fantastically.
“It went very well, we had a little over 200 people come. We had no problems whatsoever, no protesters, no shouting, everybody had a great time, lots of laughs, smiles, and a lot of happy people.”
After the festival, Brown-Salsman said he attended the following council meeting to request permission for the 2024 festival. Those plans were then approved during November of 2023. But following that time, Brown-Salsman said many of the council members changed out due to the election.
“When the new administration came in, they took over in January, in February they tore all the events down off the city’s (website). And (Pride Fest) had been on there for nearly four months.”
The lawsuit claims the Loogootee City Council rescinded prior approval for the festival, changed the application process for using city property, and failed to vote on approving the festival’s new application. Brown-Salsman said the after the initial change in process he filled out the application and returned it as soon as he could.
“Since that time, the city council has put us on the agenda to be discussed, but they just continue to push it down the road, they never discuss it and always have an excuse to delay it until next month,” he said.
Last city council meeting, Brown-Salsman said the council voided all initial applications and created yet another new application.
“They voided all the first applications, which that would have included mine, and as far as I know Loogootee Pride’s application was the only one,” he said. “They voided all those and came up with a new application that had to be filled out. And the new application, it took the city attorney 30 minutes to read the ordinances based on this new application.”
For Brown-Salsman, it was clear the Pride Fest was being targeted with the new rules.
“Totally out of line, what they were requesting,” Brown-Salsman said. “They were coming up with fees to charge the Loogootee Pride Fest, that they have not charged to other events held in the same location. So they were targeting the Pride Fest itself.”
Brown-Salsman said the new application process includes an application fee, but the city hasn’t been able to determine the asking price yet. He also said other requests were made of Pride Fest that weren’t made of other events.
“One of the most disturbing things in this new application is that they are asking that every vendor, volunteer, anyone involved at all, to provide their information so they can do a background search on the national sex offender list,” Brown-Salsman said. “And again, this has never happened to any other festival. So they are targeting the Pride Fest. All we’re seeking is equality.”
When asked about living in Loogootee as a gay man, Brown-Salsman said overall its very supportive.
“The majority of the people here have been very welcoming, very supportive,” Brown-Salsman said. “A lot of them have LGBTQ in their families, and they want to represent their children, grandchildren, cousins, brothers, sisters, it’s just come down to a small hand full of pushback. But unfortunately that push back is coming from the officials, the city council, the mayors office.”
“Me and my husband, we’re 60 years old, we’re used to this, but we’re trying to change it for the younger citizens, the LGBTQ community, so that they don’t have to go through the pain and sorrows that we had to go through to get this far,” Brown-Salsman said. “They deserve to be able to stay in their hometown without being driven out. It’s just not fair, and we just want equality.”
Brown-Salsman said Loogootee is about to have Summerfest, which he said is a lot of fun, but used it as an example of another event that is not being treated equally with the Pride Fest.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU asks for the following relief from the court;
“Declare that the City of Loogootee has violated the First Amendment rights of plaintiff for the reasons noted above; enter a preliminary injunction, later to be made permanent, enjoining the Special Events Ordinance, and allowing plaintiff to hold Loogootee PrideFest 2024 in the Public Square of area in Loogootee as approved by the City Council in November of 2023.”
WTWO has reached out to the Loogootee city officials for comment. At the time of publication we had not heard back.
