“Drag is joy, but it’s under attack. Our very existence, our self-expression, our art — all of it is being threatened. And we’ve had enough.”

That’s the opening salvo of Qommittee, a group of drag performers banding together to protect and promote their art form, as it announced its formation ahead of June’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

“We’ve always had to fight tooth and nail for our place in this world,” the group said in a news release Wednesday. “But now, we’re also battling a tidal wave of hate — doxxing, harassment, death threats, armed protests, bombings, and even shootings.”

Qommittee consists of about 10 drag performers nationwide who have experienced, directly or indirectly, threats, harassment or violence related to their art form. One had a venue firebombed in Ohio; one performed at Club Q in Colorado Springs and helped victims the night of the shooting there that killed five people; and one worked at Club Q and at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, where a gunman killed 49 people in 2016.

    • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 months ago

      I live in a strange area of the US that has an equal amount of drag shows and gun bashes. Combining the two would be incredible.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      5 months ago

      The only thing a drag show with guns would do is have conservatives frothing at the mouth saying that only Christian white men can be trusted with guns and laws would soon follow.

      You don’t see gun manufacturers participating in Pride month.

      They know their customers.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Reagan started calling for gun control while governor of California when the Black Panthers started arming themselves.

  • Verdant Banana@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    the US voted in a older Catholic with a prosecutor as a vice and now we have that same guy running against another old white right leaning conservative asshat

    really fucked and not in the fun way

  • HorreC@kbin.social
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    5 months ago

    The idea that drag isnt a conservative value is so odd to me, for so many years in the past men were the only ones to be female characters on stage. I would think they would like that these people are keeping that tradition alive. Hell they have gone so far as to get women to play the men, this seems like the artistic expression that started the movement in the first place. Real traditional values here.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      These idiots have no idea about that sort of thing and would be the first to call any actor showing less machismo than John Wayne a f-g anyway.

      • HorreC@kbin.social
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        5 months ago

        wasent it speculated or rumors that john had a male lover, if was not just out right gay? I might be remembering something weird, but I thought it was a story when the whole Lincon had a male lover.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I think that there are rumors that pretty much every macho guy ever secretly had a male lover, so I wouldn’t put much stock in those.

          That said, here’s how John Wayne used to sit-

          Maybe it’s me, but it seems a bit on the fay side of things…

          • HorreC@kbin.social
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            5 months ago

            Hey good for him, I just wish if he was gay that he could have been open about it. Maybe its ok as he is able to disconnect his character from his real life (not that anyone needs to know your relationship or sexualaity outside of your partner). Also when I did smoke I never looked that cool.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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      5 months ago

      Answer is in the quote. “Don’t tread on me”.

      Doesn’t say anything about how you shouldn’t tread on others.