In the spirit of mixing politics and pageantry, San Francisco supervisors Matt Dorsey and Rafael Mandelman will perform in drag for a political fundraiser this week.
But raising money for the United Democratic Club (opens in new tab) at Oasis (opens in new tab) on Sunday won’t all be about lip-syncs and death drops.
“We’re taking a hot minute to talk about trans rights and LGBTQ legislation,” reads a Facebook post (opens in new tab) advertising the event.
The show will be hosted by D’Arcy Drollinger, the owner of Oasis, who was appointed San Francisco’s drag laureate by Mayor London Breed to promote the city’s LGBTQ+ culture and small businesses.
READ MORE: San Francisco Pays ‘Drag Laureate’ $55K To Be the City’s LGBTQ+ Envoy
More officials are expected to participate in the show, the Facebook post says.
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In addition to raising money for the political club, part of the proceeds will also go to Drag Story Hour (opens in new tab), where drag queens read to children at public libraries.
The drag event comes as the U.S. grapples with a wave of anti-trans and anti-queer sentiment, including right-wing groups protesting (opens in new tab) drag storytime events and queer politicians being called “groomers (opens in new tab).”
Anti-LGBTQ legislation is also sweeping the country, including here in California, where a controversial mandate from the Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County requires educators to out students who identify as a gender other than what they were assigned at birth.
The mandate, passed in July with a 4-1 vote by the district’s school board, prompted outrage from supporters of trans rights and a civil rights investigation (opens in new tab) from California’s attorney general.
Supervisors Mandelman and Dorsey, Drollinger and United Democratic Club president Bobak Esfandiari did not respond to requests for comment.