Tarahoot, waiting in the 45-degree February wind chill in Washington, stood in Washington Circle wearing a canary yellow dress, heels and a rainbow feather boa. Hoot waited alongside about 100 others, but most of them wore layers of clothing to launch a protest.
“Because I’m here, I’m angry at the situation we’re in ourselves,” Hut said to Blade in the crowd of prodrugs and pro LGBTQ protesters gathered behind her. He spoke. “I’m very frustrated that this sitting president is attacking a marginalized population. When everything falls apart, it’s a distraction for the country. The cost of the eggs is there. , inflation is rising, and he’s attacking the marginalized population of DC here? It’s like doing your job, right? What he’s doing is immoral and alienated. It is weak to attack the population that has been employed. He is just showing his weaknesses.”
Last week, President Trump promised his followers that he would eliminate people who “do not share a vision for the golden age of arts and culture,” particularly targeting drug performers at the Kennedy Center. On Wednesday, he realized that goal, removing 18 Democrats from the formerly bipartisan Kennedy Center Board, replacing them with Trump’s loyalty.
This raised the question of legality to remove the board and his apparent attempt to silence the right to the First Amendment. As a result, the Kennedy Center issued a statement following Trump’s post.
“According to the governance of the Centre, established by the Council in 1958, the chair of the Council will be appointed by the Centre’s board members,” the statement read. “There is nothing in the Centre law that prevents the new administration from replacing board members. However, this is the first time that such action has been taken on the Kennedy Center Board of Directors.”
Of the newly appointed board members, all stood behind the president, who was each twice as a result of the federal government. These loyalists include gay Richard Grenell, who served as Trump’s German ambassador in his first term. Usha Vance, the second woman in the United States. Susie Wills, White House Chief of Staff. Patricia Duggan, a philanthropist and top GOP donor.
The newly appointed board subsequently elected Trump as chairman.
When asked about Hoot, a local drug icon who played at Kennedy Center, on the current board she was quick to get answers.
“Well darling, they missed the chance!” Foot said. “I was running for the board chair and the director of the Kennedy Center. Art is gorgeous, diverse and beautiful, and that’s how we all tell our stories. The board is a board chair. No matter who you are, you need to keep the center of the Kennedy Center in mind. They really need to have a spine. If these ideas have to be something that has art, then the board is Kennedy The centre needs to be pushed back to the people’s arts location and maintained.”
The hymen of the self-proclaimed “professional crossdresser” and trans person, Brooke Ng said that, for them, changes in public attitudes are more than the silence of free speech, but the erasure of trans people. I explained it.
“I can see that attacks on drugs are not only an attack on my mind, but also a veiled attack on my livelihood, as well as on trans people,” the Hymen said. “They want to code trans people and what they do with their daily representations as drugs as a way to ban trans people. So if they don’t stand up to these attacks on drugs, Trans people are the first people to be harmed.”
The Hymen went on to say there is a clear and simple way to offset these behaviors that directly and negatively affect the LGBTQ community.
“More drug programming, more stranger artists, more stranger musicians, more stranger cast,” they said. “Talafute was running towards the Kennedy Center executives. I don’t know how much that’s possible under Trump, but that’s a lovely emotion and I think it’s something we all should push.”
Returning Foot to the Kennedy Center has also become a heart for other participants at the protest dance party. Former arts administrator John Borstell said it would be beneficial to appoint someone like Foot to the board just to ensure someone speaks at the Kennedy Center.
“Go out and put the bipartisan board back together,” Borstell said. “Go out and get those who know the art back. Let’s stop Tara here! A drag queen who played at the Kennedy Center. She’s frank about this. She says Biden is They have been appointing, appointed members of the board, and are not on record making public statements about what happened. They fear themselves. Drag queens are speaking out. The bureaucrats are I won’t speak up.”
His feelings about the lack of response from former Kennedy Center officials were reflected in his dissatisfaction with other established members of the arts community who did not appear in the protest. But it made him proud in a unique way.
“Because I’m queer who came out tonight to be a gay guy, to be queer, to protest it. “He’s going to cut it all down. Everyone’s here. It should be. I’ve been working in the arts department here for over 30 years. Where are those people? But Queers are here. And they’re dancing!”
Bennett Shoop, one of the protest organizers for the Claudia Jones School for Political Education School, told the crowd in Washington Circle. Ignoring it means erasing its history.
“Drugs are really important to DC and are important to DC’s history,” Shoop told a diverse and growing crowd. “William Dorsey Swann was America’s first drug queen and the enslaved man who called the “Queen of Drugs” who threw drug balls in the city. Drug is a DC agency that has determined Trump will become one of his top targets in his fascist administration. But it’s not just Kennedy Center drug performers. The administration wants to remove all sorts of gender inconformity and LGBTQ people from public life, as did at the Hirschfeld Institute when the Nazis burned all those books. ”
“This is DC,” he continued as the crowd cheered him on. “D.C. is the city around the strangest city in the United States. We may not have representatives in the federal government, but we have a fighting spirit… he has all the executive orders You can pass and make all the fascist acquisitions he wants, but queer and trans people are still here. You know, we still dance and that dance will live their long lives .”
One member of the LGBTQ community who resisted oppression through dance and protest explained his speech when he concluded, explaining it could be acknowledged as triggering a modern gay rights movement.
“Never forget that Drag Kingstomo Ellavery was nothing but Drag Kingstomo Ellavery who influenced the Stonewall uprising that led to the gay liberation revolution in the 70s. Drag was one of our revolutions at the time. It’s a department, and it must be part of the revolution now. I want to end with a quote from Claudia Jones, the name of our school. Claudia Jones once said, “People.” The art of the world is the origin of their freedom.” Let us make this our Genesis, like our predecessors. ”
After speeches by other organizational groups, a group of around 200 people sang Kennedy Center songs down the middle of the road, sometimes stopping to dance. Onlookers from apartments along the road would waving windows at the group, and occasionally shouting words of support from the story.
One of the people marching in protest was Jennifer Ives of Germantown, Maryland. She was tied up in her coat and hat as she danced along the protest route, holding the sign.
“I’m here because I want to support the trans and gay community,” Ives told Blade. “I think soldiers should get hormone treatment, treatment, pills. I think Trump should get out of the Kennedy Center. I believe there is an attack in the trans community right now and we can’t stand it. So we have to protest, and we have to dance.”
From her vast black and red hair to her sparkly, tinsel-covered suits and thick white heels, another participant, dressed in a complete drug, will no matter what enforcement order she has been signed, Regardless of passing through Congress, LGBTQ people have always been here and will always be.
“The main reason is to show that despite these actions, we are still here, despite the desire to strip us of our power.” said drug performer Rhiannon LLC. “Her main message, despite us losing, and despite losing, I think the important thing that stuck to me after the election is that we haven’t returned. And if we let that message die, we’ll go with it. So, to be here and go outside, that’s great.”
They went on to say, “You have the integrity. Trump may be there for the next four years, but you’ll be there after that.” These actions follow you, and your job is to support the arts. So support the arts.”
One of the final speeches of the evening was delivered directly in front of the Kennedy Center, with its marble walls and gold pillars providing the final background for the protest. Another local drug legend, Pussy Noir, was handed a microphone to close the night.
“This is a fierce time for all of us,” said Noir, who currently has a residency with the Kennedy Center Reach program and plays on drugs in the city. “I don’t know if you know this about me, but I’m the main drag queen who brought drugs to the Kennedy Center and along with many other drag queens in the city, I’ve made it a real one. It helped to establish it as an art form.”
Noir took a little time to see the crowd. Their faces were lit by the glow of the Kennedy Center. After that, we finish off the message of resilience and solidarity of all drug artists. – Gay bars on walls all over the country.
“So, no matter what someone says, if you’re a drug performer, you’re an artist. If you support drugs, you’re supporting artists. For now, this is just free speech. It’s an attack on artists against small business owners, and I think that’s something everyone in this country can understand. We have to support each other and be kind to each other. Above all, that’s me. It’s the only way they can fight this.”
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
