Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif, honored RuPaul Charles live on the House floor yesterday.
Standing next to a photo of Mama Ru, Garcia hailed the Emmy-winner for uplifting queer artists on the hit international TV competition series, RuPaul’s Drag Race.
The show has served as a critical space to discuss issues around inclusion, trans rights, mental health and self worth.
And this message couldn’t be more important as the LGBTQ-plus community continues to fight for equality and acceptance.”
According to NBC News,
Republican lawmakers in at least 19 states have introduced legislation this year intended to restrict drag performances, with governors in at least three states — Florida, Montana and Tennessee — signing such measures into law. A federal judge stopped Tennessee’s anti-drag measure last week, ruling it unconstitutional.
The majority of the drag bills proposed this year aim to ban children from seeing drag performances. Supporters say the legislation is needed to protect children from inappropriate entertainment, while critics argue that the legislation broadly paints the art form as overtly sexual and unfairly targets LGBTQ Americans.
According to a GLAAD, from early 2022 to this past March, there have been more than 166 protests and significant threats aimed at drag events across the country.
And the Human Rights Campaign just declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ Americans for the first time in its four-decade history as a result of
an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year.”
HRC’s President Kelley Robinson said in a statement,
The “multiplying threats” are “real, tangible and dangerous. In many cases they are resulting in violence against LGBTQ people … and triggering a tidal wave of increased homophobia and transphobia.”
Garcia said in a phone call to NBC News,
The current attacks from the extreme far-right is really an attack on the people that have led the gay civil rights movement in this country.
And that’s something that should alarm and concern all of us, and we have to continue to push back.”
Watch.
“I rise to commemorate the start of Pride Month by honoring the one and only queen of drag, @RuPaul “
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) June 7, 2023
— @RepRobertGarcia pic.twitter.com/gZdwMuuPKe
