Drag Queen Raises $26,575 for Pride by Selling Bricks
Ms. Bouvèé sold 50 bricks from a rainbow crosswalk removed under DeSantis's order to support Pride celebrations in Key West and Naples.
Ms. Bouvèé, a South Florida drag queen, has raised $26,575 for Pride celebrations in Key West and Naples by selling repurposed bricks from a rainbow crosswalk dismantled under an order from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The performer, whose offstage name is Eric Swanson, was among hundreds of Floridians who protested after the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) began paving over rainbow crosswalks statewide last year.
DeSantis’s order targeted street art, murals, and crosswalks he claimed were “dangerously distracting.” It followed a letter from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy urging all 50 governors to erase rainbow crosswalks and other street art. Duffy claimed the designs distracted drivers and increased the risk of accidents, despite evidence to the contrary.
Despite protests by Swanson — in full drag — and others, FDOT dismantled or paved over the rainbow crosswalks and street art, often in the middle of the night.
“I think what was scariest about this was that we saw cities lose their rights to govern their own people,” Swanson told the Miami New Times. “They took away due process; they took away the cities’ rights to manage their own streets. That starts somewhere, and it ends somewhere else.”
A friend later told Swanson that bricks from the rainbow crosswalk on South Beach’s Ocean Drive were being auctioned off after being replaced with black pavement, CBS News reported. Other bricks were being used to build a pedestrian area in South Beach. Swanson bid on 50 bricks and won.
Swanson told the New Times he saw a chance to repurpose the bricks to raise money for Pride celebrations in Key West and Naples. He washed and repainted them in rainbow colors, adding a plaque to each identifying its origin and how long the crosswalk had stood before its removal.
Swanson initially hoped to raise $15,000 for Naples Pride and $7,500 for Key West Pride — both of which have struggled to attract corporate sponsors.
He exceeded both goals, selling all 50 bricks within four days of launching the campaign and raising $16,300 for Naples Pride and $10,275 for Key West Pride, according to a post on Ms. Bouvèé’s Instagram.
“People got so excited about holding a piece of our history, because it’s not the first time we’ve used bricks for a protest,” Swanson said, referring to the Stonewall Uprising, a pivotal event in the modern LGBTQ rights movement. “I just love that they’ll have this life all over the nation.”
The money will help pay for a live entertainment stage and security for the events, Swanson told the New Times. Both are ineligible for local government funding under a recently passed law prohibiting public spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Swanson said this wouldn’t be his last fundraiser for LGBTQ organizations or events and hoped his efforts would inspire others to take on similar projects.
“I hope it inspires other drag queens to be innovative, to think about how you can be just as creative as you are with your art form, look what you can do to save your Prides,” he said. “Because we’re all going to need the help coming up.”
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