A number of prominent drag queens are taking extra steps to protect themselves following last month’s mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Amid the backdrop of this hostile atmosphere — not to mention general concerns about security in an age of mass shootings — several of the country’s top drag queens have increased security at their events in recent weeks.
“We’re trying to smile and make people happy for the holidays, and in the back of our heads we’re thinking, ‘I hope I don’t get shot,'” Jinkx Monsoon, the winner of season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race and the “All-Winners” season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, told NBC News.
Monsoon said that she has been using metal detectors and creating venue escape routes for U.S.-based events over the past year. But since the Club Q shooting, she has hired armed guards and has started to ban re-entry following the start of her performances.
A report released last month by the LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD found that drag events faced at least 124 protests and significant threats of violence in at least 47 states due to protesters’ claims that drag is overtly sexual and inappropriate for children. Many of those events were often first targeted by right-wing media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Wire, or by social media accounts like LibsofTikTok or Gays Against Groomers, which have inspired some people, some of whom have been armed, to go to venues to protest drag-related events in person.
Recently, a drag show in North Carolina — which had been protested for weeks leading up to the event — was disrupted after the lights went out during a county-wide power outage. That blackout was caused by a person or people who shot up two power substations with a firearm, leaving 45,000 residents of largely rural Moore County without power for days. While there is currently no firm link between the drag show and the power outage, speculation has been rampant online, serving only to increase fear among some members of the LGBTQ community.
Opponents of drag have argued that the increased visibility of drag is either an effort to “indoctrinate” young people into supporting LGBTQ rights, and have conflated drag with transgender identity, arguing that attending shows featuring drag performers will promote “gender confusion” and gender dysphoria among youth.
While many drag performers — including the eight who spoke to NBC News for its article — agree that not every drag performance is appropriate for minors, they also argue that just because some shows may require age limits or parental advisory warnings doesn’t legitimize efforts to ban drag performances from the public sphere altogether.
“People need to look at us like they look at any other profession or art forms,” Yvie Oddly, the winner of Season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race and a cast member of season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, told NBC News. “There are some things that are not going to be made for the youth, but that does not mean that all of us are out here, like people seem to think we are, trying to ‘convert’ or ‘groom’ or whatever.”
Regarding security at her own shows, Oddly said her management company has requested extra security staff and will check patrons for guns and other weapons by patting them down before allowing them to enter venues.
Alaska Thunderf**k 5000, a podcaster and the winner of season 2 of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, said that she and her staff began plotting out escape routes for each of the venues where she’s slated to perform on her nationwide tour. She says that police squad cars have been stationed down the block from some of the venues she’s performed.
“It’s mortifying that we even have to think about these things for something as joyous and celebratory as a drag show,” Alaska told NBC News. “Why do we have to be worried about where the exits are and where a safe route to get to safety is? It’s terrifying, but that’s the reality of it.”
Silas Shelton, an Ohio pastor who publicly objected to an LGBTQ-themed book series at a school book fair by claiming it encouraged children to "explore their sexuality," has been accused of grooming an underage girl.
The 52-year-old was arrested on October 15 and charged with four felonies: rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct, and gross sexual imposition. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts, according to court records.
In a statement posted to social media, the Wilmington Police Department said Shelton was taken into custody in connection with an ongoing sex offense investigation. He is being held at the Clinton County Adult Detention Center on a $2 million bond.
A D.C. jury has acquitted a gay man accused of assault after he threw a Subway footlong at a federal agent during President Trump's short-lived federal enforcement "takeover" of Washington last summer.
As part of the "takeover," Trump deployed agents from multiple federal law enforcement agencies, along with National Guard troops, to patrol D.C. streets, ostensibly to deter crime. Among them were Customs and Border Protection agents, who carried out traffic stops aimed at rounding up undocumented migrants.
Sean Dunn, a 37-year-old Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, was captured on video yelling at a Customs and Border Protection agent near a traffic stop on 14th Street NW. The footage shows him jumping up and down, throwing the sandwich, and then trying to flee on foot. The August 10 confrontation quickly went viral on social media.
San Francisco has named Per Sia, one of the first performers to read at a Drag Queen Story Hour event, as the city's new Drag Laureate.
Appointed by Mayor Daniel Lurie on October 29, the 44-year-old Per Sia is only the second person -- and the first transgender individual -- to hold the title.
D'Arcy Drollinger, owner of the Oasis nightclub, was San Francisco's first Drag Laureate. The position -- one of only two in the country, alongside West Hollywood's -- comes with a $35,000 annual stipend for a three-year term funded by the San Francisco Public Library, which also supports the city's Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate programs.
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