About 2,500 people RSVP’d for Sunday’s Drag March LA, a rally in West Hollywood to protest anti-LGBTQ legislation.
The event, which kicked off at West Hollywood Park at 10 a.m. PT, included remarks by Los Angeles LGBT Center CEO Joe Hollendonor, Los Angeles county supervisor Lindsey Horvath and West Hollywood Mayor Sepi Shyne. “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Kerri Colby and Honey Davenport also performed.
In response to growing rhetoric supported by the Christian Nationalist movement calling LGBTQ+ people “unsafe” for families, Drag March was organized to take place on Easter Sunday, with members of faith groups joining to show their support of the LGBTQ community.
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After a series of speeches, the march set off, moving down Santa Monica Boulevard up to West Knoll and back around to WeHo Park.
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“We have seen over 400 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced across the U.S.,” Hollendonor told Variety. “We are standing up in resistance to that. We want to do so with joy and resiliency. We want to show that every time our community is attacked, we come back stronger and we always win.”
After Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law that would criminalize drag performances, conversations surrounding LGBTQ rights fulminated. These drag bans have been used as a subliminal attack from Republican lawmakers against the trans community, arguably one of the most targeted demographics in the U.S.
“The trans community [and] drag performers have been at the forefront of our movement since the very beginning,” said Hollendonor. “What I want to assure them is that the Los Angeles LGBT Center and our community are going to be there, side by side, fighting for them, protecting their rights and advancing their equality.”
Colby, who is a trans woman and drag artist, felt her participation in the Drag March was a “responsibility,” especially on Easter Sunday, with the date of the event coming as no coincidence.
“Easter Sunday has many meanings to me. It’s been a meaning of me finding my faith. It’s also been an unfortunate time where I’ve been met with a lot of obstacles and a lot of things that have made me feel very uncomfortable to be myself,” Colby told Variety. “To take that power back, and [to] show up with my community and say that we deserve to be here is the most important part. And what better day to do that than on Easter Sunday?”
WeHo Mayor Sepi Shyne showed her support on Sunday. As the first Iranian LGBTQ Mayor in the world, Shyne pronounced just how important it is for the community to stay out and proud.
“We, in the LGBTQ community, have been fighting for our lives, fighting for self expression and freedom from the day we were born,” said Shyne in a speech. “An attack across this country on drag symbolizes another attack against all of us…It’s important that we uplift our rights and keep fighting, because if we stop doing that, they will win and we will lose our rights.”
