WaPo: “As soon as their application to participate in the city’s annual Christmas parade was accepted, the members of Prattville Pride began drawing up designs for their float.
The theme was “Stars Fell on Prattville,” and Prattville Pride, a nonprofit dedicated to the Alabama city’s LGBTQ+ community, prepared a float adorned with colorful streamers and a large, PVC-pipe star covered in rainbow tissue paper.
But the day before the parade, Prattville Mayor Bill Gillespie banned the group, citing “serious safety concerns” after people online had threatened to heckle and throw eggs at the float.
The group swiftly sued the city and Gillespie, accusing them of violating its rights to free speech and equal protection under the law. On Thursday night, Prattville Pride served the lawsuit, filed in federal court, to Gillespie at the city’s annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The next day, with hours left until the parade’s start, a U.S. judge for the Middle District of Alabama ruled that the city had to allow Prattville Pride to participate and provide at least two law enforcement officers to escort the group’s float.”