Blue Moon Bar, an LGBTQ club in Pittsburgh's Lawrenceville neighborhood, has apologized after a drag performer wore blackface during its weekly Open Stage event, prompting death threats against the bar.
"Blue Moon Open Stage has been happening for 14 years," the bar wrote in a September 30 Facebook post. "We’ve always tried to maintain a safe and welcoming space for our community and have trusted our performers to share their artistic visions without needing to be policed or censored. One performance last week violated this trust resulting in threats of violence against the bar. Our responsibility as always is to our staff and patrons. We therefore are forced to cancel open stage for the time being."
Reality TV works in mysterious ways. An ostensible loss can quickly and unexpectedly be transformed into a win, especially in the hands of a queen who's prepared. RuPaul's Drag Race favorite Salina EsTitties, a.k.a. Jason De Puy, was heartbroken, she says, that her run on the recent All Stars season 11 came to an end in her first round of competition.
The feisty Latina performer, who first competed on Drag Race proper three years ago, returned for All Stars with fierce new looks and a fierce attitude, but still missed the cut of queens who made it out of their bracket to the Merge, where finalists would compete.
Drag artists and advocates fighting back in the culture war against drag and LGBTQ rights have seen triumphs and setbacks this summer. Two recent federal court decisions -- one in Florida, the other in Texas -- illustrate opposite shifts in the war being waged over anti-drag laws in states around the nation.
In August, a federal appeals court upheld Florida's law that bans performers or venues from conducting any "adult live performance" in the presence of a minor. The law defines "adult live performance" in terms loose enough to apply to practically any performer who appears in drag in a public space -- from a drag brunch to a Pride parade -- where a minor could be present, even with their parent or guardian's consent.
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