Performers from Southern Utah Drag Stars in 2023 – Photo: Via Instagram
A federal judge has ordered St. George, Utah, to pay a group of drag performers more than $350,000 in attorneys’ fees after previously ruling in the troupe’s favor in a First Amendment case.
U.S. District Judge David Nuffer ordered the city to cover the legal costs accrued by Southern Utah Drag Stars over a three-year legal battle, finding it is bound by the terms of a 2025 settlement.
Southern Utah Drag Stars initially planned to stage a drag show at a private venue, but it was canceled after the owner received threats against employees’ safety, according to St. George News. The group then applied for a permit to hold the show in a public park in April 2023.
The city granted the permit, then revoked it after the group and its CEO, Mitski Avalox, advertised the event before it was finalized — a violation of city code. Organizers objected, noting that other non-LGBTQ events had not had permits revoked for premature advertising.
The city argued the decision was a neutral enforcement of its event and advertising rules. Organizers countered that those rules were applied inconsistently and in a discriminatory manner.
Further complicating matters, the city imposed a six-month moratorium on approving new events on public property to evaluate their impact and review the permitting process.
With help from the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, Southern Utah Drag Stars sued the city in 2023 after being denied permits for an “all-ages” drag show in a public park. The lawsuit argued the denial violated the group’s First Amendment rights in a “flagrant and ongoing violation of their free speech, due process, and equal protection rights,” as reported by The Associated Press at the time.
The drag show was eventually held at the Dixie Sunbowl on June 30, 2023 — two months after its originally scheduled date.
The lawsuit was settled in 2025, with the city agreeing to issue a public apology and provide monetary compensation.
However, the city argued it should not have to reimburse the performers for attorneys’ fees, despite settlement language requiring it. It also claimed the fees were excessive and based on vague billing entries.
After reviewing the billing, Nuffer determined the fees were reasonable. He pointed to the results achieved, including being able to hold the show and changes to city ordinances. Because the case was resolved through a binding settlement — rather than a temporary ruling — he held the city must comply with all terms, including paying attorneys’ fees.
Nuffer ordered the city to pay $350,216.50 in attorneys’ fees and $902 in costs, and directed both parties to file final documents within 28 days to close the case.
St. George has faced similar conflicts before. HBO filmed a drag show in a public park there for the Emmy-winning series We’re Here, in which performers travel to communities where LGBTQ identities are less accepted. As reported by Salt Lake City NBC affiliate KSL-TV last October, the city paid a $625,000 separation agreement to former city manager Adam Lenhard after he refused to cancel a permit for the performance out of concern it could expose the city to a discrimination lawsuit.
The U.S. Department of Education has terminated agreements with five school districts and a college that required schools to follow an interpretation embraced by the Biden and Obama administrations extending sex-discrimination protections to transgender students.
The move marks the first known instance of the Trump administration terminating civil rights settlements previously negotiated with schools or school districts.
The five school districts -- Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware, which serves Rehoboth Beach; Fife School District in Washington State; Delaware Valley School District in Pennsylvania; La Mesa-Spring Valley School District in California; and Sacramento City Unified School District -- along with Taft College in California's Central Valley, reached those agreements with past administrations following alleged incidents of discrimination involving transgender or nonbinary students.
"Growing up, my family was politically aware," says Democratic California State Sen. Scott Wiener. "I remember in 1980, when Reagan was elected, I was 10 years old. I remember our house was a house of mourning that election night, and there was a sense in my home of just trepidation of what was going to happen because even though Reagan seems somewhat more benign than Trump, it was a very right-wing takeover.
"My family was very aware and attuned to what was happening, and especially as Jews, you're always attuned to who's taking over the government and what they could do."
Growing up in Southern New Jersey, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Wiener, the son of an optometrist, was raised in a conservative Jewish family, with ancestors who fled the pogroms of Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 20th century before immigrating to the United States. While his hometown ultimately transitioned from a farm town into a more developed suburb, there was no local synagogue until Wiener's parents formed one with a dozen other Jewish families from the surrounding area.
A Tennessee librarian is facing discipline after refusing to move more than 100 books flagged for LGBTQ content and other themes deemed "objectionable" from the juvenile section of the Rutherford County library.
The 132 books were part of a larger list of 190 titles compiled by Rutherford County Library Board Chair Cody York and board member Beth Duffield, allegedly to protect children from "gender confusion."
Those books were part of a much larger list of 2,712 titles flagged by the Rutherford County board following an "age-appropriateness review" ordered by Republican Secretary of State Tre Hargett last October. Local libraries were directed to comb through their juvenile collections and remove books that do not align with Donald Trump's executive order declaring that transgender identity is not valid and that only two biological sexes will be recognized by the government.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.