(COMBO) This combination of file pictures created on August 3, 2024 shows US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaking on March 26, 2024, in Raleigh, North Carolina; and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaking in the first presidential debate with US President Joe Biden in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27, 2024. Harris’s campaign on August 3, 2024, dismissed Trump’s announcement that he was willing to debate her on the conservative Fox News network, after he declined to participate in a previously scheduled debate on ABC. “Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” her campaign communications director Michael Tyler said in a statement. “He needs to stop playing games and show up to the debate he already committed to on Sept 10.” (Photo by Brendan Smialowski and ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
CHICAGO—“This is the real DNC!” says Chicago drag queen Lucy Stoole, sporting a gold dress, heels and blond wig, offset with a thick beard.
Moments later another performer dressed as Yoda from the “Star Wars” films and sporting a red sparkly “Harris-Walz” bustier vanquishes two “Trump-Vance” stormtroopers with a lightsaber.
The drag event at a Chicago music hall, on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), is one of a number of efforts across the United States to promote LGBTQ+ voter turnout and political volunteering.
‘75 million’ strong
Democratic-aligned campaign groups say that up to 75 million voters identify as LGBTQ+ or prioritize the issue —more than enough to swing November’s presidential election, currently on a knife-edge.
Democratic activists therefore did a steady trade helping audience members register to vote—alongside stripteases and lip syncing on stage.
READ: The Obamas view Harris as the hope of a post-Trump America
“Many of these young individuals literally didn’t know how to vote,” said 59-year-old James Eidel, communications director of DragPAC, which seeks to promote political engagement among Gen Z voters using the reach of famous drag queens.
As queens, including Sheeza Woman and Dusty Bahls, captivated the packed audience, clipboard-wielding activists worked through the crowd signing up volunteers to campaign for candidates and policies that protect the LGBTQ+ community.
“[We are] an organization of LGBTQ++ Chicagoans … who actually go and knock on doors in [swing states] Michigan and Ohio,” said 37-year-old Jin-Soo Huh, cochair of grassroots LGBTQ+ campaign group QForce.
“We already saw what Donald Trump can do in four years. We cannot afford another four years of that.”
Plenty of vitriol
As president, Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military, opposed workplace protections for the LGBTQ+ community, and ended Obama-era nondiscrimination protections, according to Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group based in Washington.
Vitriol around trans people, especially athletes, has been a feature at Trump rallies, where the ex-president whips up his crowds on the issue.
Hostility to trans people from Trump’s movement has come in tandem with Republicans campaigning against drag artists, seeking to ban them from performing in some public spaces—with laws passed in Texas and Montana, among others.
What’s at stake
“What’s at stake in this election … are not only our civil rights, but the very basic idea that we have a place not only in society but in the halls of power as well,” said Virginia state Sen. Danica Roem, 39, the first openly transgender state senator elected in the US south.
Roem, a Democrat, said it was not enough just to get Harris into office. She said she would do “whatever it takes to make sure our downballot Democratic candidates are being supported. We have significantly more mobilization than we have had before.”