A federal judge on Friday ordered the City of St. George, Utah, to pay $350,000 in attorneys’ fees for the group Southern Utah Drag Stars, after a long-running lawsuit was settled in their favor last year.

The suit, filed in 2023, cited a “flagrant and ongoing violation” of the group’s “free speech, due process, and equal protection rights,” by the city and members of the city council, the Associated Press reported.

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Friday’s ruling confirms Southern Utah Drag Stars was the prevailing party in the 2025 settlement and orders St. George to pay.

The three-year legal battle was sparked by opposition in St. George to an all-ages drag show planned for a city-owned public park. The protest was spearheaded by far-right council member Michelle Tanner, a vaccine denier and “family values” proponent who had already cost the city a six-figure settlement in another drag-related dispute.

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In 2022, Tanner objected to the city issuing HBO a permit to film an episode of the traveling drag show We’re Here in the small southern Utah town.

”Something is fishy as hell about how this went down,” Tanner texted colleagues after the city manager issued a permit for the show, over objections from Tanner and her right-wing allies on the council. The manager, Brad Lenhard, told Tanner and the council members that there was no legal basis for denying the permit and that doing so would violate free speech protections.

“Unless the production violates a law, I think their right to use the park is protected under the First Amendment,” Lenhard replied in a text message to members.

Lenhard issued the permit, and the show was shot. 2000 people showed up for the main event at a St. George amphitheater.

Tanner was incensed.

“I do not trust any staff member who wouldn’t look at a permit application for an HBO TV-MA rated production being held at a children’s venue and think to themselves ‘hmm rather than revising contracts, breaking ordinances, and pushing this through in record time, maybe this should be a decision for ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES OF WE THE PEOPLE to make,’” she wrote on social media.

Tanner then led an effort to fire Lenhard, who threatened to sue. City lawyers said St. George would be found liable for an illegal termination. The city settled with the manager for six figures, according to sources.

Tanner then took her anti-drag crusade to the Southern Utah Drag Stars permit, rallying council members in 2023 to deny it on a technicality.

The group, led by drag artist and CEO Mitski Avalox, sued, detailing Tanner’s role in directing “discriminatory” action against the drag queens. A district court judge granted a preliminary injunction in June that year, allowing the show to go on.

Again anticipating defeat in the face of Tanner’s anti-drag animus, St. George was forced to settle with Drag Stars in 2025.

Since then, the city has been in denial over its obligation to pay.

St. George argued the drag queens didn’t meet the standard of “prevailing party” in the settlement, a designation required to recover attorneys’ fees under federal civil rights law, St. George News reported. The city also contended that the drag queens’ requested fees were excessive and based on vague billing entries.

“The plain language of this provision is clear and unambiguous—Plaintiffs are the prevailing party in this case and are entitled to recover their reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs,” the court wrote.

Tanner hasn’t commented publicly on the ruling. She’s up for reelection in November.

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