Oprah Winfrey’s surprise appearance Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention may have received the loudest applause at the United Center. But over at the concert hall Metro in Lakeview, it was difficult to gauge which drag queen got the most roars and dollar bills.
The show was organized by Drag PAC, the nation’s first-ever political action committee led by queer entertainers.
“Drag queens are always the front people at the parade, the first person you call for an auction or to fundraise because we get attention,” said Willam Belli, one of Drag PAC’s founders. “We like attention, so why not use our attention-getting to shine a light on the right issues?”
Belli formed the PAC with five fellow former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestants this year in response to rising anti-LGBTQ+ hate and threats to trans rights.
The number of anti-trans bills introduced nationwide has increased every year for the last five years, according to Trans Legislative Tracker. This year’s record-breaking 642 bills target everything from health care access to school curriculum censorship and legal recognition. Only 45 of these bills have passed, but 123 are still active.
Illinois, where eight anti-trans bills have been introduced this year, according to the tracker, is a relative safe haven in the Midwest. Iowa had 33 introduced, Missouri had 47, Minnesota had 20, Wisconsin had 17 and Michigan had nine so far this year. On the federal level, 79 were introduced.
Following a boisterous tango between performers dressed as Star Wars characters Yoda and stormtroopers, a representative from local grassroots organization QForce took the stage to recruit volunteers to canvass in two neighboring battleground states, Wisconsin and Michigan.
“Drag is rebellion and, if I can rebel in any way against a MAGA agenda, I will,” said attendee Laine Wyatt, a 20-year-old DePaul University student from Howell, Michigan. Former President Donald Trump received criticism for making a campaign stop Tuesday in Howell because of its associations with the Ku Klux Klan.
Wyatt and her three roommates — one also from Howell and the other two from Arkansas and Nebraska — all identify as queer and enrolled at DePaul to get away from their less accepting communities.
“It was important to come to Chicago to embrace the queer spaces that are here and find people like each other and the people who are performing tonight,” Wyatt said. Her roommates vigorously nodded in agreement. They were interrupting their nightly DNC watch parties to support Drag PAC Wednesday.
Opposite the DJ booth, Chicago-based drag queen Lilith Towers was registering people to vote and educating them about the intricacies of voting as a trans or nonbinary person.
While Towers said it’s relatively easy to vote in Illinois since one doesn’t need to show a photo ID, individuals in states with strict voter ID laws — overwhelmingly Republican-led states — may face challenges.
All the PAC’s efforts to date have been focused on improving LGBTQ+ voter turnout around the country.
“If you’re at this party and you’re not planning on voting, why are you here?” said Belli. “If the Republicans had their way, none of this would be happening at all.”
While the PAC has not officially endorsed any political candidates, performers encouraged the audience to vote Democrat, and local drag queen Lucy Stoole, who emceed the event, made calls for a cease-fire in Gaza.
The drag queen closed out the event with a diss track about Chick-fil-A, which donates to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, before Stoole announced that Ben & Jerry’s donated free ice cream to Drag PAC.
The energized crowd sprinted for the door to get in line for a pint to top off the night.
