Drag artists launch national support network to combat targeted hate

Drag artists across the country announced Wednesday their intention to build a national organization dedicated to protecting and promoting drag, as performers face increasing threats of violence, protests and legislation against the centuries-old art form.

The announcement, made on the eve of LGBTQ Pride Month, comes amid warnings from federal agencies that such events are likely to be targeted by extremist groups next month.

The newly formed “Qommittee” will act as a national support network for drag artists, filling a critical gap in an industry that relies on freelance work but lacks strong worker protections. The use of the letter “Q” is a reference to the organization’s queer roots. “And it’s Qute,” said Qommittee community organizer Scott Simpson.

The group plans to officially launch in June 2025 and will spend the next year recruiting an ambitious 1,000 drag artists to sign on as “Qo-Founders.” A fundraising campaign over the next 12 months hopes to raise enough money to fund the volunteer-run operation and its lofty goals.

“Our intention is to build a place where people can come and find the resources they need to organize and protect themselves,” said Blaq Dinamyte, a Washington-based drag king who will serve as president of the organization. This includes legal and safety resources for artists and venues, which may not be equipped to handle anti-drag demonstrations.

“What we’re seeing now, maybe in the last five or 10 years, is that a lot of these spaces where shows are happening aren’t necessarily queer spaces — we’re doing brunches in restaurants and bars that don’t have a mostly queer clientele. , so they don’t really understand the dangers,” said Blaq Dinamyte. “Sometimes they don’t understand that they are putting themselves at risk of any kind of backlash or protest from right-wing or far-right groups.”

The past year has seen an increase in hate speech and violence against the LGBTQ community, and anti-drag mobilization efforts – including protests, threats and violence – are increasingly prevalent.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned this month that Pride celebrations beginning next month are likely targets of foreign terrorist organizations, and the State Department, in a separate warning, said that U.S. citizens who Traveling abroad in June should “stay alert” in places frequented by tourists. , including “places frequented by LGBTQI+ people”.

Anti-drag hate

More than 200 cases of anti-drag hatewere registered by the Strategic Dialogue Institutea non-profit organization that investigates extremism and misinformation, between June 1, 2022 and May 30, 2023, led by “growing numbers” of individuals affiliated with white supremacist, parental rights, and Christian nationalist organizations.

An Ohio man and member of the extremist group White Lives Matter was sentenced in January to 18 years in prison for trying to burn down a church that planned to hold a drag event, and members of the far-right Proud Boys, who the Southern Poverty Law Center designated a hate group, often involved in attacks on drag performers and LGBTQ-focused events. More than two dozen members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front were arrested near a Pride celebration in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 2022 for conspiring to cause riots.

A jury this month awarded $1.1 million to an Idaho drag artist who performed at the 2022 Pride in the Park event in Coeur d’Alene in an unrelated case. Eric Posey, who uses the stage name Mona Liza Million, sued Summer Bushnell, a right-wing blogger, for defamation after Bushnell falsely claimed that Posey exposed her genitals to a crowd that included children.

Simpson, the Qommittee community organizer, sees verdicts like the one in Posey’s case as glimmers of hope. A key function of Qommittee, they said, will be to bridge the gap between artists with such success stories and those who are still unsure how to protect themselves.

“They know how to work properly with law enforcement; they know how to build relationships with communities in advance to prevent harm from happening,” Simpson said. “One of the things we want to do is take that knowledge and that wisdom and make it more publicly available and accessible to drag artists.”

An unexpected flashpoint

In recent years, drag has emerged as an unexpected political flashpoint, with opponents arguing that the performances are offensive and inappropriate for young viewers.

Lawmakers in at least a dozen states this year introduced legislation aimed at restricting drag events that take place in public or where they can be seen by minors, although almost all of them failed to become law.

Six Republican-led states last year passed legislation restricting trawling, although four of them — in Florida, Montana, Texas and Tennessee — are blocked by federal court orders. GOP leaders in Congress have also tried to crack down on drag shows, and top defense officials in June banned drag performances on military bases after pressure from House Republicans.

A majority of Americans oppose laws restricting drag events, an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found, including more than a third of Republicans and nearly 75% of Democrats.

Drag artists and LGBTQ advocates have championed drag as a form of expression that challenges social and gender norms and promotes inclusivity. They reject claims that drag is inherently sexual.

“I believe drag is self-expression,” said Tiara Latrice Kelley, a drag artist and producer from Colorado. “There is nothing more American than self-expression.”

Kelley is no stranger to anti-drag and anti-LGBTQ violence: She narrowly avoided deadly shootings at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 2022, and the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, and lost loved ones in both. tragedies.

“My hope with Qommittee is that we can create safe spaces that are true safe spaces and spread the word that these spaces are available,” she said. “In our community right now… there’s a lot of fear, there’s a lot of anger.”

“We should have come together a long time ago, and maybe we did and maybe we got lost somewhere along the way,” said Maxine LaQueene, a drag artist and transgender rights activist in Austin, Texas. “But right now, I can safely say that this is something I absolutely want to be a part of, because it will unite many parts of our community and we will be stronger in numbers – we are stronger together.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story