Athens Pride defeats far-right activist in lawsuit, defending freedom of speech

UPDATE 6/30/26: On appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court has affirmed the decision of the Georgia Appeals Court, granting victory to Athens Pride in a unanimous decision.

Athens Pride and Queer Collective, an LGBTQ+ advocacy and support group, has successfully defended itself in court from a lawsuit filed by Julie Mauck, real estate agent and Oconee County chair of the far-right group Moms for Liberty.

In 2023, Mauck filed a lawsuit against Danielle Bonanno, then president of Athens Pride, alleging that Bonanno had broken the law by informing Mauck’s employer of the anti-LGBTQ+ comments she made at a July 2023 meeting of the Oconee County Library Board. At that time, the Oconee County Library was considering whether to move the graphic novel Flamer from the young adult to the adult section of the library as some residents were requesting. 

Mauck caused an uproar during the library board meeting when she accused the LGBTQ+ community of sheltering pedophiles.

“LGBTQ is an acronym for sexual affiliations. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, and the plus is there to be all-inclusive down to pedophiles,” she said. She had to pause her comments briefly as order in the room was restored. “LGBTQ+ is not for children. Any of it. None of it…Why would a small town library be participating in the gender ideology movement and recruiting our children?”

Mauck seemed to be making the common homophobic claim that LGBTQ+ people, usually gay men or trans women, are more likely to sexually abuse children than their straight or cis-gendered counterparts. This is false.

Soon after these comments, Bonanno wrote to Bob Allen, the owner and licensed broker of Greater Athens Properties, asking him to take action against Mauck, his employee. 

“[I]t has come to our attention that Julie Mauck, one of your newer employees, has a history of being an anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, being vocal about her discriminatory views and engaging in harassment towards our community, including queer children and families,” Bonanno wrote. “I kindly request that you conduct a thorough investigation into this matter and take appropriate action to address Julie Mauck’s behavior.”

The next day, Allen agreed to terminate Mauck’s employment. In her lawsuit, Mauck argued through her lawyer Jonathan Vogel that Bonanno’s comments were false. She said that she does not discriminate against LGBTQ+ people and that she does not hold anti-LGBTQ+ views. If shown to be true, Mauck and Vogel argued, Bonanno’s comments to Mauck’s employer could be considered a deceptive trade practice and therefore a violation of Georgia’s Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

A couple days after Bonanno’s letter, an Athenian named Felix Bell filed an ethics complaint against Mauck with the Georgia Association of Realtors. In the complaint, Bell stated that Mauck had “made a public display of calling the entire LGBTQ community ‘pedophiles,’ along with calling for censorship of LGBTQ-related material.” Bell argued that this behavior was contrary to the National Association of Realtors’ code of ethics, which prohibits harassing speech, hate speech or slurs against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The Georgia Association of Realtors originally agreed with Bell that Mauck’s speech violated their code of ethics but sided with Mauck upon appeal.

Mauck alleged in her lawsuit that Bell defamed her by filing the ethics complaint and had interfered in her business relationships. Mauck claimed that she didn’t call the entire LGBTQ+ community pedophiles and that she didn’t advocate for the censorship of LGBTQ+-related material. Instead, she said that her speech at the Oconee County Library Board meeting was about protecting children from age-inappropriate books. 

The Coalition for Liberty, a conservative nonprofit which is opposed to what they call “cancel culture,” assisted Mauck in her lawsuit by paying her legal fees, according to the Daily Signal.

“If somebody is knowingly and intentionally lying about you to try to silence your voice, that’s the essence of cancel culture,” Coalition for Liberty President Doug Turpin told The Daily Signal. “Our mission is to stop people on the left from trying to suppress and silence other people’s voices.”

Purportedly to defend freedom of speech, the Coalition for Liberty set out to silence Mauck’s critics through legal action. 

Yet, Bonanno and Bell’s comments are protected by the first amendment to the US Constitution and by the Georgia state constitution. Georgia has strong anti-SLAPP laws which allow residents to participate in public debate about important issues without fear of baseless lawsuits designed to intimidate and silence them. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, an international law firm based in Missouri, agreed to represent Bonanno and Bell on a pro-bono basis throughout their lengthy court battle.

A judge weighs in

ACC Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens made the initial ruling on this case, which was issued on November 18, 2024. Stephens shattered Mauck’s arguments one by one in his comprehensive 52-page opinion, starting with the accusation of libel against Bell.

Mauck needed to show that Bell’s speech was not protected by the constitution in this case or, even if it was, that she would be highly likely to succeed on the other claims of her case anyway (for example, she needed to show a probability that Bell deliberately made false statements to the Georgia Association of Realtors in order to defame Mauck).

Unfortunately for Mauck, Stephens ruled that she is a “person in the public eye” in part due to her position as the chair of the Oconee County Moms for Liberty chapter, her frequent radio and press interviews (including one she gave about this very incident) and because of her previous run for the Oconee County Board of Education. As a public person, criticism of her beliefs or actions is automatically protected under the first amendment.

However, the public nature of Mauck’s speech at the Oconee County Library Board itself would also be sufficient to establish first amendment protection, even if she was not so frequently in the public eye.

“The hearing [at the Oconee County Library], its conduct and its topic were unquestionably matters of public concern (i.e. a public meeting before a government authority for the specific purpose of influencing a policy decision), a fact underscored by the considerable attendance and local news coverage of the event for more than a week after it concluded,” Stephens wrote.

As a result of this determination, Mauck’s lawyer was forced to show that she had a high probability of success on the rest of her case. According to Stephens, she certainly did not.

“In many cases, Mauck’s purported falsities are not falsities at all, but are simple dissatisfaction with the fact that [Bonanno and Bell] relayed the substance of her own comments to others,” Stephens wrote. “Bell’s characterization of her comments at the Oconee County Library substantially aligns with her actual comments. In common parlance: that’s what she said.”

While Mauck may protest that she didn’t call the entire LGBTQ+ community pedophiles, Stephens ruled that Bell is allowed to form and vocalize his own opinion of these comments under the first amendment.

“Mauck…does not hold a monopoly on how her own comments are received and interpreted by others. An actionable falsity does not exist simply because Defendant Bell interpreted Mauck’s comments differently from how Mauck prefers that they be interpreted.”

Stephens dismissed Mauck’s accusations against Bonanno using similar decisive language, saying that Mauck’s request of the court was “antithetical to both federal and state constitutional protections for free speech.”

The appeal

Despite losing in such a dramatic fashion, Mauck appealed Stephen’s decision. This caused the case to stretch on for another full year.

On November 3, a three-judge panel of the Georgia Appeals Court unanimously affirmed Stephens’ 2024 ruling, with Judge Jeffrey Davis authoring the decision. Davis’ opinion was shorter and used less powerful language than Stephen’s original decision, but it was no less decisive.

“We conclude, as did the trial court, that public statements in a public forum alleging that a group is ‘inclusive of pedophiles’ are matters of public interest and public concern [and thus constitutionally-protected],” Davis wrote. Later in the ruling, he emphasized that “Mauck cannot demonstrate that Athens Pride or Bonanno made a false or misleading statement,” while “Bell’s statements were simply based upon facts that were disclosed [in his ethics complaint] and merely reflected his own interpretation of Mauck’s statements, which is not actionable.”

The current situation and next steps

Mauck is refusing to admit defeat even after a second unfavorable ruling. She has appealed yet again – this time to the Georgia Supreme Court. While it is highly unlikely that Georgia’s highest court would take up her appeal, it is not impossible.

For now, Mauck and the Coalition for Liberty are on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal expenses for both their own legal team and for that of the defense. While lawyers at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner agreed to take Bonanno and Bell’s case on a pro-bono basis, they did so with the knowledge that, if successful, their fees would be paid by the losing party.

Given that an appeal is pending, Bell and Mauck have both declined to comment on this story. Bonanno did not decline, but has not yet submitted a comment.

Some Athenians may celebrate the ruling in this case, while others may remain uncomfortable with the effects of so-called “cancel culture” on our society. Regardless of your opinion, know that you have the constitutional right to express it – both in public or in private, as you prefer. 

This liberty is enshrined in the US Constitution and is defended in court through judicial decisions like this one.

The thumbnail for this article was taken from a video recording of the 2023 Oconee County Library Board meeting made by journalist Lee Becker of Oconee County Observations. Thanks, Lee!

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