Portland’s Darcelle XV Plaque Defaced With Hate Speech
The historic marker outside the famed Oregon drag venue was vandalized with anti-gay graffiti containing violent and homophobic messages.
The owner of Portland’s Darcelle XV Showplace says a historic plaque honoring the club’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places was vandalized with anti-gay graffiti and what he described as “vile hate speech.”
Jeremey Corvus-Peck said in a May 15 Facebook post that he discovered the vandalism while visiting the club earlier that day.
The graffiti invoked anti-LGBTQ tropes portraying gay and queer people as child “groomers” or pedophiles, mocked LGBTQ visibility, and called for violence against members of the community.
Phrases scrawled on the plaque included “Death to the Sodomites,” “Lil Boy Lover,” “The Gayest Homo Ever (So Far…),” “Keep Away from Kids,” and “Not Appropriate for Public Advertising.” The vandal or vandals also drew an “X” over Darcelle XV’s image on the plaque.
“It depresses and saddens me that in 2026, someone can still write about harming another person simply because of who they are and who they love,” Corvus-Peck wrote in the post.
Darcelle XV, a.k.a. Walter Cole, who died in March 2023 at age 92, was recognized by Guinness World Records in 2016 as the world’s oldest working drag queen. Guinness also ranked her show as “the West Coast’s longest-running drag show.”
Darcelle XV bought a dilapidated tavern in Portland’s Old Town neighborhood in 1967 that remains open today. Over her six-decade career, she hosted fundraisers and events benefiting various LGBTQ causes, according to LGBTQ Nation. In 1972, she was crowned Rose Empress XV, “The Happiness of the Rose,” by the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court of Oregon — the state’s longest-running LGBTQ charitable organization — in recognition of her community contributions. She also frequently appeared at civic events alongside local and state politicians.
In July 2023, Portland officials renamed O’Bryant Square — located about a half-mile from Darcelle XV Showplace — as Darcelle XV Plaza in her honor. The plaza, which is set to officially open in two months, will include a performance space with a stage and sail-shade canopies, a small off-leash dog park, and a “walk of fame” honoring Darcelle and other LGBTQ figures.
In his post, Corvus-Peck said he partly blames the current administration, arguing that its rhetoric “has emboldened people to believe that if you are not a straight white male, you are somehow less worthy — a second- or even third-class human being.”
In recent years, Republicans and conservative politicians have used anti-gay rhetoric and tropes similar to those scrawled on the plaque to demonize LGBTQ people — particularly drag performers — while pushing laws restricting drag performances in front of minors.
Although the plaque has since been cleaned and restored, Corvus-Peck urged the public to remain vigilant against efforts to erode people’s civil rights.
“As May turns to June, we all need to remember that the rights and progress fought for over the last 50+ years can be undone when those in power choose division and intolerance over equality and humanity,” he wrote.
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