Earlier this month people celebrated in Boone with a “Pride Party” that featured a “family-friendly” drag show as well as a drag queen story time for kids.
The drag show, which did have young children in attendance, featured a pole dance performance:
Here are some other photos from the event, which were publicly posted to Facebook:
The book “My Shadow is Pink” was read to children. The story is about a boy who states his shadow is “pink.” And when he goes to school, he wears a dress.
The Book Shoppe was on hand to sell the so-called “banned books.”
In attendance was a person called Elijah Stines, who is running for mayor of Boone. Stines currently serves on the Boone City Council.
According to a story in the Ames Tribune, the Pride Party was organized by Boone resident La Homa “Homie” Simmonds.
The event was triggered by efforts from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to “broaden anti-LGBTQ legislation” and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds “rushing head-long into following in his shadow with similar legislation in Iowa backed by the Republican legislature.”
The Ames Tribune wrote:
“For those who aren’t familiar with the fun atmosphere of a drag show, Reicherts explained that drag queens are men and non-binary people dressed flamboyantly as women. Drag kings are women and non-binary people dressed flamboyantly as men.”
One speaker discussed why sex-change treatments and surgeries should be considered medically necessary rather than cosmetic.
“It’s pretty petty that state government is going after the low-hanging fruit of prejudice,” the person said. “Our governor is not working on our behalf. She seems to be working on behalf of private insurance companies in order to figure out ways so that they can deny coverage to Iowans. Gov. Kim Reynolds is not working on behalf of Iowans — she is actively helping private insurance companies deny Iowans medical coverage.”
The person, a “transgender woman” Sondra Wilson, said the only thing left for them to do is run for governor against Reynolds in 2026.
“I may not be a perfect candidate, but if I had the option right now, I would vote for a french fry that’s been sitting underneath a stove for the last month over Kim Reynolds,” they said. “So you can’t talk me out of it.”
One of the drag performers who participated at the unapproved show in the Ankeny School District spoke about that incident.
“We got in a lot of trouble with the media,” the person said. “They picked up on it within 24 hours and we were all over Fox News. We were everywhere. People were calling us really disgusting names that I can’t even repeat because of how deplorable they are. They were saying that we deserved to be arrested. I know it’s stupid, right?”
The current political climate around drag has the individual “terrified.” They discussed the bill that would have banned minors from attending drag shows.
“I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to perform anymore. You’re going to take that away from me just because you don’t like it? You think that’s fair?’ And not even that, I have a drag family and one of my younger brothers in my drag family is trans. And with all these bills about forcing trans kids to use the bathroom that aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth, taking away (sex-change treatments and surgeries) for those under 18, I worry about him every day. I see him once a month and I worry about him every single day. I worry about all the trans-non-binary youth every single day.”
They said the Tennessee law prohibiting drag is “not fair.”
“You cannot take this away from us,” they said. “You will not take this away from us. We’re drag performers. We are loud. We are here, we are queer and we will not disappear.”
An individual who was the first black trans empress of Iowa spoke as well. They noted they are also a pre-K teacher at a daycare center in West Des Moines for 3-year-old kids.
This person referred to Gov. Reynolds as the “Hag of Capitol Hill.”
“The Hag of the Hill had the caucasity, yeah I said it, had the caucasity, to go to the newspaper and then cry,” this person said. “The tears of my enemies, I’d like to wear them as jewelry, I wouldn’t wear that to save my life. But that woman ticked me off in such a way that it hurt because when I started HRT (hormone replacement therapy) I was an adult and I knew what healthcare meant for me. And so for a kid with a supportive set of parents and a supportive family, saying ‘We’ve got your back.’ To take that away from them, someone’s going to have blood on their hands. I don’t think she realizes it.”
A bill in Iowa that would have banned minors from attending drag performances was not advanced by the Republican-controlled Iowa Senate.
