As drag queen story hours and the marketing of cross-dressing and gender-switching to children have increased on a national level over the past years, the debate on minors attending stage shows that feature men dancing in lingerie has come to Murfreesboro.

Following September’s Boro Pride event held at Cannonsburgh, a Murfreesboro city park, a video of the drag show has generated some controversy and resulted in irate parents and the city banning the sponsoring organization, the Tennessee Equality Project, from holding any future events on city property.

Posted by conservative activist and commentator Robby Starbuck, the video from the outdoor event captures “adults gyrating and humping the floor” with kids in the audience, as Starbuck says.

At one point, a young audience member gave a cash tip to one of the scantily clad, gyrating performers.

“This is disgusting! Sad how perversion like this is acceptable today,” said one observer, Donna Smoda, in response to the video.

Starbuck says he wants to see children legally protected from “hormone therapy, gender mutilation and wildly inappropriate drag shows in public.”

While he and many other concerned parents say they do not want to interfere with what adults choose to do in adult settings, “this is about protecting the innocence of children.”

Hundreds of parents commented on the drag show activities, an event billed as “family friendly,” with many calling it “disgusting,” “not appropriate,” “demonic,” “awful” and “child abuse.”

“Why not just take [children] to a strip club?” another concerned American commented sarcastically.

Although the Boro Pride festival has presented these types of drag shows in previous years, the outcry following the 2022 festival got the attention of city officials.

In a letter addressed to Tennessee Equality Project, Murfreesboro City Manager Craig Tindall made it clear that such shows are “unacceptable and inconsistent with the use of City property.”

The display within Cannonsburgh in September contrasted so drastically with the promises of a “family friendly,” “all ages” day at the park that TEP promoted, that Tindall said the group would not enter into further rental agreements with the Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department.

“These promotional descriptions were misleading and your application submitted to the City contained material misrepresentation,” Tindall wrote. “The event contained conduct and speech of an explicitly sexual nature, which is a clear violation of the terms of the permit issued to your organization as it violates Murfreesboro City Code. More offensively, your event intentionally exposed young children to this conduct, a clear violation of Tennessee statute and Murfreesboro City Code.

“As a result, I will deny future special event permits submitted by your organization.”

Others point out that the show appeared to violate another Tennessee law in addition to the one Tindall referenced. TN Code 7-51-1407 states that an “adult cabaret shall not locate within one thousand feet of . . . a public park” (nor a child care facility, school, family recreation center, residence, or place of worship).

Tennessee State Rep. Bryan Terry said he expects the general assembly to consider stricter regulations limiting the attendance of sexualized dance performances to adults.

“There will likely be legislation surrounding this issue in the coming session,” Terry said. “At the minimum, there are at least two issues at hand. First is the inappropriateness of lewd activity on public property under a permit, and the inappropriateness of having minors attend.”

One Murfreesboro City Council member says that city officials need to be more involved in making sure activities held on city property follow the agreed upon permit issued.

“If a permit is issued for a ‘family friendly’ event, it should be such,” Murfreesboro councilman Shawn Wright said.

“That show seems to violate existing state laws regarding lewd acts,” he said regarding the Boro Pride drag show at Cannonsburgh. “Celebrating love and inclusion is one thing, but I have talked to people with kids who were there, people without kids who were there and people who were not there, all saying what happened was not appropriate. I don’t think anyone can see that and think that it is appropriate for children, whether it’s someone in drag doing it or a natural-born woman up there doing the same thing. I just don’t think that this is ‘family friendly’.”

Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, pointed out that the drag show “has been a part of our pride celebration and other pride celebrations for many years.”

“Drag performances have been a part of it since 2016 and they have been enjoyed by the spectrum of people from youth and their parents to seniors,” Sanders said. “What has changed this year is the determination of some to cast the event as some kind of threat.”

The TEP director added that the group opposes “any effort to categorize all drag performances as inherently only appropriate for 18 and up.”

Shows elsewhere in Tennessee have recently sparked similar debates. Jackson Pride agreed to make the drag show portion of its pride celebration an 18-and-up activity, following pressure from State Rep. Chris Todd and other residents.

Todd cited the same state law prohibiting adult cabarets in parks as a way to keep Jackson Pride from having a drag event in a public park.

“I intend to see that the law is upheld!” Todd said.

Even after a change of plans with the intention of holding the show indoors, Todd and others filed a legal complaint that the indoor location for the “outrageous adult performance” was still within 1,000 feet of a house of worship (the Jackson First United Methodist Church).

However, they went on to drop that complaint after drag show organizers agreed to make the event 18-and-up, according to NBC News.

“By agreeing to the restrictions, they have effectively acknowledged that what they were promoting was way out of line,” Todd said.

In Memphis in September, the Museum of Science & History made a last-minute decision to cancel its Memphis Proud Drag Show and Dance Party.

Protesters showed up at the event, another one billed as “family friendly.”

“It’s child abuse. I don’t care who does it, it’s wrong,” one of the protestors, Susan Gray, told Action News 5, “this is nudity, sex acts, and simulated sex acts, and it’s wrong.”

The Museum of Science & History issued a statement saying it “made the decision to cancel all programming Friday evening due to the presence of armed protesters.”

Another drag show at Tennessee Tech University resulted in the university president issuing a public apology and cancelling other activities of the involved student organizations after a video of these festivities garnered much outrage. Here, a striptease artist caressing him/her/themself performed and accepted cash from minors in attendance.

“If these were straight kids watching straight strippers, they would be shut down so fast,” Dawn Miller noted.

Videos from events in Maryville, Tennessee, also show barely clothed performers interacting with children, while pride activities in Chattanooga included youngsters—preschool-age children, it appears—touching the crotch area of an individual in a mermaid costume and watching as other burly performers spread their legs and displayed their barely-covered genital regions.

“Parents shouldn’t take kids to drag shows and business owners shouldn’t host drag shows aimed at children,” Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp posted.

In Chattanooga, the Hamilton County Conservatives have begun collecting signatures “petitioning our state legislators to pass a law stipulating that all drag shows or events featuring drag performers must be for persons 18 years and older only.”

Robby Starbuck, along with his wife, Landon, continue to post videos of children attending drag shows and encourage parents and voters to get involved.

“We can’t allow this to continue,” Starbuck posted. “In Tennessee there will be no safe space to be sexually inappropriate with kids.”