[PRIDE - REWIND] Drag Story Hour Under Attack: What Can Media Do?

REWIND EPISODE FROM THE LF&F ARCHIVES (Synopsis)- From sabotaged performances in rural North Carolina to besieged Drag Story Hour events in diverse urban neighborhoods, the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ+ rights is being fought on multiple fronts, with activists, artists, and journalists joining forces to resist a surge in anti-queer hostility and promote a culture of acceptance and inclusivity.

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[The following episode was released June 2023 - [Full Episode Notes on Patreon]

Description:  As Pride Month continues, we explore the activism of drag queens and trans individuals who bore the brunt of the violence during the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and are still targets of violence and vitriol today. State legislators, so far this year, have proposed and in some cases passed, hundreds of bills that seek to restrict drag culture and queer self-expression. Proud Boys have harassed and threatened Drag Story Hour events across the country, even in the diverse borough of Queens, NY. In this episode of The Laura Flanders Show's monthly feature, Meet the BIPOC Press, Laura and co-host Mitra Kalita (co-founder of URL Media) are joined from North Carolina by Naomi Dix, an influential drag artist whose show in rural Moore County was disrupted by a sabotage attack on an energy substation — an attack that left 45,000 households and businesses in the dark for five days in December 2022. We're also joined by reporter Sam Zachar, the producer of a two-part podcast series for Epicenter-NYC on NYC's Drag Story Hours — what they are, and what they're up against.

“We never thought in a million years, especially drag artists of my generation, that we would have to be facing the same things and issues that our parents were telling us that they were having to face in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s and the 80s.” - Naomi Dix

“What we're seeing is an overlapping of the identities that our communities represent, and the approach to how we combat these forces. It's really powerful when we can say the counter protestors outnumber those who don't want us here.” - Mitra Kalita

“I think that Drag Story Hour as a whole gives us a great look and a microcosm of drag trans and queer worlds, because it represents how they're being attacked in terms of losing rights to exist safely, and the Proud Boys, specifically digging their heels into inflammatory, destructive and untruthful accusations against these communities.” - Sam Zachar

Guests:

•  Naomi Dix, Drag Artist, Activist & Member of Durham NC BIPOC Operated House of Coxx;  Co-Chair, Pride: Durham, NC  www.naomidix.com

•  Sam Zachar, Reporter, Podcast Producer, Epicenter-NYC

•  S. Mitra Kalita Co-Founder, URL Media;  Co-Founder, Epicenter-NYC

Special Report- Power Grids Under Attack: The Threat is Domestic Terrorism – Not Drag Artists. Watch / Listen-Download - 

December 2022, an attack on two electrical substations in Moore County, North Carolina left 45,000 households and businesses without power for up to five days. It was the biggest domestic terrorist attack on the electricity grid in the U.S. Did the sabotage attack have anything to do with LGBTQ harassment or the drag performance scheduled that night?

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“Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America” by Esther Newton, About the Book

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Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:

• Laverne Cox, Sam Feder: Trans Lives Depend on Owning Our Stories Watch / Listen-Download Podcast  

• North Carolina: Courageous Conversations in a Climate of Fear  Watch / Listen-Download Podcast 

• Imara Jones: Countering The Anti-Trans Hate Machine  Watch / Listen-Download Podcast

• F-Word, Laura Flanders’ Commentary:  Take Pride in Desire  Listen-Download Podcast

Related Articles and Resources:

•  Why NYC Kids need storytellers in drag, by Samantha Zachar, Epicenter-NYC, Read Here and Listen to the 2 part Podcast series

•  How New York City fights the Proud Boys: by being prouder, by Samantha Zachar, Epicenter-NYC, Read Here and Listen- 2 part Podcast series

•  Not Even the Moore County Power Outages Could Stop Drag Queen Naomi Dix, by Kyle Ingram, Indyweek.com, Read Here

•  Drag Story Hour NYC Learn More Here

•  A Brief History of Drag Queen Story Hour by Sara Boboltz, Huffington Post, Read Here

Laura Flanders and Friends Crew:  Laura Flanders, along with Sabrina Artel, Jeremiah Cothren, Veronica Delgado, Janet Hernandez, Jeannie Hopper, Gina Kim, Sarah Miller, Nat Needham, David Neuman, and Rory O’Conner. 

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