MTSU Refuses To Host 2023 BoroPride LGBTQ+ Festival

Image Credit: Middle Tennessee State University

The Tennessee Conservative [By Adelia Kirchner] –

Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) recently rejected an application for BoroPride’s 7^th annual LGBTQ+ festival to be held on the college campus later this year. 

According to event organizers, the application outlined plans to provide free admission to the festival and put on a drag show from 2-9pm on the day of the event.

Despite frustrations from those in support of LGBTQ+ events like this, it seems MTSU’s rejection may have nothing to do with the ideology behind BoroPride’s festivities. The university actually just hosted the 2023 LGBT+ College Conference on their campus last month.

Instead, according to MTSU, they rejected the application under MTSU Policy 100, Section VI, Paragraph L which prohibits “fronting” defined as an external event seeking use of university property facilities or services under the guise that the activity is a student event.

While MTSU has given an objectively different reason for rejecting the BoroPride festival application, they are not the first to refuse to host the event.

In September of 2022, BoroPride held the LGBTQ+ festival in Cannonsburgh Village, a historical parks and recreation site in downtown Murfreesboro.

Over 7,000 people showed up to the event and a video of children being exposed to the festival’s drag show proceeded to cause an uproar in the surrounding community.

About a month later, BoroPride organizers with the Tennessee Equality Project Foundation (TEPF) which works for “the equality of LGBTQ people in Tennessee,” received word from Murfreesboro City Manager Craig Tindall that he would not be approving future permit applications for TEPF because the event and its drag show entertainment exposed children to “a harmful prurient interest.”

Tindall made his stance clear and backed it up with city ordinance and state law before the Tennessee General Assembly had even begun their public consideration of banning adult-oriented entertainment for minors in the state. 

Executive Director for TEPF, Chris Sanders, subsequently announced that the foundation rejects the premise of drag shows being inherently adult entertainment.

Following Tindall’s correspondence with TEPF, the Nashville LGBT Chamber of Commerce chose to get involved and show their support for the LGBTQ+ festival by calling on Tindall and Murfreesboro City Mayor, Shane McFarland to reverse the decision. 

Their efforts may have worked to a certain extent because in January of this year, Mayor McFarland announced that the city would be willing to let the LGBTQ+ annual festival continue if TEPF were to make a few adjustments to the event.

“Find a way to compromise,” said McFarland at a Murfreesboro City Council meeting. He went on to suggest that if the drag show continued on city property, that perhaps it could be a ticketed event for people eighteen and older. 

Of course, TEPF went ahead and submitted a separate application to MTSU in efforts to find another location for the festival, but now that they can’t throw the festival on MTSU’s campus there is still the option of using city property so long as they make a few changes.

About the Author: Adelia Kirchner is a Tennessee resident and reporter for the Tennessee Conservative. Currently the host of Subtle Rampage Podcast, she has also worked for the South Dakota State Legislature and interned for Senator Bill Hagerty’s Office in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Adelia at adelia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.