Are You Ready For Drag PAC? A Long Way From The 1969 Stonewall Riots

Probably the group most targeted for abuse in the whole country is the poorly-understood trans community. The GOP— always looking for objects for their strategy of otherness and divisiveness— uses them the way they have used Catholics, immigrants, Jews, Asians, Blacks, gays and Hispanics. And as always, bullies count on their victims to be too cowed to not fight back. The “T” in LGBTQ doesn’t play that way and they have been fighting back from a. Very long time. And, as the corrupt NYC cops learned at Stonewall in June of 1969 drag queens and people with gender fluidity can only be pushed so far before they explode.

Ironically, it had taken a Republican NYC mayor, progressive John Lindsey, to overturn the anti-LGBTQ agenda of the Democratic Party establishment in the 1960s, but gay bars were still denied liquor licenses and were forced to pay the police weekly “gayola” to stay in business, although police raided were monthly anyway. On June 28, the “normal” raid went awry went drag queens refused to cooperate with the police. A drag queen, shoved by one of the bully cops, surprised everyone by hitting him in the head with her purse, at which point he started beating her with his club. People started throwing beer bottles at the police wagon and then at officers when the police became more physically abusive. The lesbians— who were targeted by police— also reacted strongly in self defense, sparking violence, including police cars’ tires being slashed. Eventually it turned into a full fledged riot with police trapped in the bar— which had been set ablaze, unholstering their guns and threatening to shoot. The police were completely and publicly humiliated, with front page newspaper coverage as the riots spilled over from Saturday into Sunday, then Monday and Tuesday. It was the beginning of the American gay liberation movement and of trans rights activism.

Eric Wilson, a gay progressive running for a swing district seat in western Wisconsin against weird homophobe Derrick Van Orden, knew the liberation history well. “Drag has always been a political movement,” he told us this morning. “In many regards, the rest of the LGBTQ+ community would not be where it is without drag. To see brave individuals get into the fight is inspiring. To push back on the movement of hate trying to take over our country, it's going to take us all. Representation matters. Pushing back against people like Derrick Van Orden, a bully who is obsessed with attacking the LGBTQ+ community, is exactly what we need to be doing this year. I am the only one in my race fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. And I'm the only one that shows up.” Please consider helping replace Van Orden with Wilson here.

A couple of weeks ago, reporting for Open Secrets, Albert Serna wrote that “A new political action committee is stomping the runway, bringing together some of the biggest names in drag to push back against anti-LGBTQ legislation and politicians. Through a flurry of social media posts on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter, the PAC has begun a campaign to raise funds ahead of the November election. Aptly named Drag PAC, the committee was officially formed in March 2024 Federal Election Commission filings show. As a hybrid PAC, the committee can make limited donations to politicians from one account but raise and spend unlimited money to make independent expenditures from another.

In the fabulous video above announcing the launch, RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Peppermint, Monet Exchange, Alaska, BenDeLaCreme and Willam explain that they connected to form the first and only PAC led by drag queens. Jinkx Monsoon said “I think everyone is a little disheartened with a lot of our elected leadership. And frankly our community is being assaulted and it’s escalating to violence.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9 alum Peppermint told OpenSecrets that she was initially approached by rapper and podcaster Dan Stermer, professionally known as Big Dipper, to start the PAC.

Because Big Dipper was familiar with Peppermint’s involvement in social issues and activism including the Black Queer Town Hall, the performer said she wasn’t surprised that she was approached to join.

Peppermint said that it is important to raise money to support candidates whose ideals and motives align with the PAC’s mission. She added that candidates who don’t support LGBTQ issues or who actively work against the interests of queer individuals are sometimes supported by large donors.

“Candidates that we would want to support us, people that we would go out and vote for, are being defeated at the polls by candidates that have so much backing, millions of dollars,” Peppermint said. “What we want to do is support candidates, sort of pick that same model and support candidates who are willing to speak up on behalf of the LGBTQ community.”

July 2024 FEC filings show that the PAC has raised more than $140,000 so far, with long-time Democratic donor Dylan Bulkeley-Krane contributing $60,000 since March. Bulkeley-Krane is one of the committee’s organizers and is also the co-founder of Disability Action of America.

Bulkeley-Krane told OpenSecrets that he donated the initial start-up funds to the PAC so that the committee could get off the ground. “Since then we’ve received hundreds and hundreds of small dollar donations and a few big donations as well,” Bulkeley-Krane said. “Much of our staff, including the Queens, volunteer our time for the PAC, so all of the money we raise go towards our GOTV efforts, filming content, hosting events and building our tech tools.”

While committees that have historically supported LGBTQ issues are not new— the LGBTQ Victory Fund has raised more than $1.8 million during the 2024 cycle and contributed just over $129,000 to Democratic candidates— Drag PAC appears to be the only federal political committee openly led by drag performers.

Podcaster and RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4 alum Willam said that part of what makes Drag PAC unique is the commitment to boosting candidates and politicians who are actively supporting queer issues.

“We haven’t endorsed anybody but our focus is on voter outreach and we will be highlighting down ballot candidates who are fighting for our communities in the future,” Willam said, adding that they personally support candidates who are visibly working to support the community, citing examples including Honey Mahogany of San Francisco and Maebe A Girl of Los Angeles.

Mahogany, another Drag Race alum, ran for supervisor of District 6 in San Francisco but was defeated by Matt Dorsey. The social worker and activist previously served as a member of the San Francisco DCCC and was later elected chair.

Girl was the first ever drag queen elected to public office after winning a seat on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. She would go on to run unsuccessfully against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for California’s 28th congressional seat in 2019 and again in 2021. After Schiff announced his retirement to run for California’s Senate seat, Girl said she would run to replace him in 2024 but lost the primary.

Maebe, the overall most progressive of the CA-30 candidates by far, came in 5th among 15 candidates with 15,791 votes (10.3%) after being heavily out-fundraised by establishment candidates:

• Anthony Portantino- $1,588,700

• Nick Melvoin- $1,480,289

• Michael Feuer- $1,453,834

• Laura Friedman- $1,385,499

• Ben Savage- $1,016,520 ($969,000 self-funded)

• Sepi Shyne- 346,473

• Jirair Ratevosian- $302,411

• Alex Balekian- $295,507

• Maebe A Girl- $116,190

Serna noted that, to get candidates and win races there needs to be a high level of engagement from younger generations. “Peppermint said educating younger voters, particularly Gen Z, is a focal point of Drag PAC and noted that younger people tend to be more progressive but don’t always show up to vote.”

I spoke with Maebe about these efforts yesterday and she told me she had done some volunteer work for DragPAC recently, including recording a yet-to-be-released video last week, “on why I run, why I vote, and for whom— communities that have historically not had a voice in politics or government. It’s my understanding that DragPAC is not yet endorsing any particular candidate, but rather attempting to harness the voting power of the queer community with the facilitation of drag performers who have always been big fundraisers for community efforts. Perhaps it would have made a difference to have the endorsement and financial backing of a group like DragPAC, but at this point my own goal is keep Trump out of office and to elect the most viable, progressive option for highest office. I have my own opinions about the Democratic Party and their not-so-veiled attempts to block true progressives from advancing to higher office, but we do currently have the opportunity to move Harris and her yet unknown VP left in the coming months. Rarely do US electeds move left once they are elected, so the time for these conversations, in my own opinion, is now.”