Amarillo area nonprofit sues City of Canyon after ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’ event permit denial

CANYON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – A Texas Panhandle nonprofit focused on advocating for and supporting LGBTQ+ community members filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Canyon on Wednesday after it was denied a permit for its annual celebration in March and allegedly was given a blanket refusal for any future events.

The Amarillo Area Transgender Advocacy Group filed a lawsuit against the City of Canyon on Wednesday in Amarillo Federal Court, alleging that the city violated the nonprofit’s First Amendment rights and requesting a jury trial to seek a resolution.

As previously reported on MyHighPlains.com, AATAG applied for a permit to hold its third annual Transgender Day of Visibility Celebration in Paul Lindsey Park in Canyon in March, the same location used for the event as in previous years. However, the City of Canyon denied the permit due to what city staff described as alleged public safety issues and “lewd” behavior seen during the 2023 event.

At the time of the permit denial, AATAG President Sam Burnett said city staff reported there had been “absolutely” no issues during the 2023 event, and noted there were no phone calls made from the city or police department to AATAG about issues after the fact.

The lawsuit described AATAG as a nonprofit that works toward “breaking the cycle of silence, isolation and discrimination” impacting marginalized communities in the Texas Panhandle, including transgender people and the broader LGBTQ+ community. AATAG has partnered with St. Luke Presbyterian Church in Amarillo to host community events and, in 2022 and 2023, previously held “well-attended celebrations of the LGBTQ+ community” such as the Transgender Day of Visibility Celebration in Paul Lindsey Park in Canyon.

AATAG described that the Transgender Day of Visibility Celebration began in 2022 in response to an effort by some individuals to eliminate the Canyon Independent School District’s suicide prevention program for teens due to the mention of a transgender student.

“After receiving an “outpouring” of concern from community members harmed by those comments, and recognizing that LGBTQ+ youth face an outsized risk of suicide and self-harm, AATAG decided to host the 2022 Celebration ‘to let the kids know that they are not alone.'” said AATAG in the lawsuit, “AATAG continued that tradition with its 2023 Celebration, and intended to do the same with the 2024 Celebration.”

AATAG said that its Transgender Day of Visibility Celebration events have been open to the public and “suitable for all ages,” including drag show performances in which “drag performers always remain clothed and their PG-rated performances never include any content that is even remotely obscene.”

The lawsuit alleges that the City of Canyon denied the event permit in spite of AATAG’s First Amendment rights as well as against city policy mandating that event permits cannot be denied based upon factors such as sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, the message of the event nor assumptions or predictions about possible hostility in the public triggered by it.

AATAG also alleges in the lawsuit that the City of Canyon “has been unwilling to reconsider its outright denial of AATAG’s permit application. City officials have flatly refused to consider whether there are terms by which the City would grant an event permit to AATAG, confirming that the Denial Letter effectively serves as a permanent, blanket ban on any future AATAG events in any public forum in Canyon, indefinitely.”

In the lawsuit, AATAG alleges that the City of Canyon caused “irreparable harm” by preventing it from communicating with its intended audience as well as caused the nonprofit financial and reputational harm. AATAG also alleges that the city’s “blanket ban” on its events is causing “ongoing, irreparable harm” despite its First Amendment protections.

With its allegations in mind, AATAG’s lawsuit requested a jury trial and asked the court to declare the City of Canyon’s previous event denial and “threat” to deny future permit applications unconstitutional, order the city to issue a new event permit to AATAG, stop the city from denying all of AATAG’s future permit applications, and award AATAG damages and expenses.

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