‘Art is not something sexual’: Idaho drag community speaks out against drag performance bill

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Wearing a red flapper dress and lip-syncing to Celine Dion’s “River Deep, Mountain High,” Coco Freeo opened her Saturday night show with a full audience.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Freeo moved to Idaho seven years ago and found drag as a way to form a community away from her home island.

She was crowned the winner of Boise’s Next Drag Superstar All Stars in December — drawing inspiration from her Latina culture in many of her performances, including a medley rendition of Jennifer Lopez’s top hits.

“Outside of drag I’m very shy, so it was an opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone,” she said in an interview. “It is to showcase my culture. I am Latina, I want to be who I am, and bring some of that flavor to the Treasure Valley.”

Freeo began performing drag three years ago at the Balcony Club in downtown Boise. Since then, she has performed at the Boise Pride Festival, Treefort Music Fest, drag story times, drag brunches and, most recently, drag bingos.

But a bill making its way through the Legislature would no longer allow drag shows on public property. The legislation would restrict minors from attending a show involving “sexual conduct” or a show that is offensive to “an average person applying contemporary community standards within the adult community as a whole.”

According to the bill, an individual or family claiming a violation of the proposed law could receive $10,000 in “statutory damages.”

Freeo told the Idaho Statesman that the Boise drag community has become her family in Idaho, and she said performing in public spaces like Boise Pride is an opportunity for the local LGBTQ community to feel welcome and validated.

“Most of us don’t have a family that supports us, so having the community where we get together in those places and be who we are … it is a feeling that I cannot describe.”

Freeo said the possibility of not being able to perform in public spaces would take away from the local LGBTQ community’s ability to feel accepted.

“It really breaks my heart,” she said. “This is something that brings joy, this is something that brings happiness to other people.”

PRIDE EVENTS INSPIRE BILL, SPONSOR SAYS

Last month, Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti introduced a bill that would prohibit drag performances on public property and allow parents to sue event organizers and promoters who allow children access to shows featuring “sexual conduct.”

House Bill 265 — which passed in the House and now needs approval from the Senate — is co-sponsored by Sen. Ben Toews, R-Coeur d’Alene, and Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa.

Toews told the Statesman the legislation is meant to protect minors from being exposed to “explicit sexual content.” He did not respond to further questions about the legislation’s impact on LGBTQ Idahoans.

“From my perspective, the real question is — what is the long-term impact on minors psychologically of exposure to live sexually explicit performances?” Toews said in an email.

In a news release, Conzatti said LGBTQ pride events in Coeur d’Alene and Boise inspired the bill.

In June, a drag performance during a Pride in the Park event in downtown Coeur d’Alene made the news after a right-wing blogger accused a drag performer of indecent exposure. Local law enforcement found no evidence of indecent exposure, and no charges were filed against the performer. The drag performer sued the blogger for defamation in September, and a jury trial for the lawsuit is scheduled for next year in Kootenai County.

Controversy surrounding the Boise Pride Festival began in September after Idaho Republican Party Chair Dorothy Moon released a statement condemning a drag kids event, prompting at least five sponsors to withdraw their participation, including Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare. Another bill passed by the House would limit state agencies from sponsoring or donating to Boise Pride events.

North Idaho College’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance is one of the few organizations that puts on drag shows in the northern part of the state, according to its club president Mia Birmingham.

Birmingham told the Statesman that the club has held drag shows for over 15 years, and the shows are the most popular club events during the semester. Drag performances are the club’s main source of fundraising and provide visibility for the local LGBTQ community, he said in an email.

“The shows provide a place for members of the LGBTQ community to gather safely and authentically express themselves,” Birmingham said. “This is not a demonization of those who dress up as the opposite gender, but the demonization of queer expression.”

The bill does not explicitly mention “drag,” but instead it says it would prohibit minors from viewing “sexual conduct,” including dances and gestures “with accessories that exaggerate” sexual characteristics and acts.

“Sexual exhibitions like drag shows are never appropriate in public places or other areas where children might be present,” Conzatti said in a news release. “It’s illegal for children to patronize strip clubs, and we don’t allow them to hang around adult movie stores. So why do we allow sexualized drag exhibitions in places like public parks and community libraries?”

Conzatti said in the news release that the bill is necessary to “protect public virtue” and “children’s innocence.”

In his blog, Conzatti said drag performers become sexually aroused when they imitate sexualized behaviors of the opposite sex in public.

In an email, Conzatti told the Statesman he has never attended a live drag show.

DRAG QUEENS EXPLAIN PERFORMANCES, KIDS SHOWS

Freeo said drag is a form of entertainment, with drag queens, kings and nonbinary performers wearing costumes that match with a show’s theme.

“We are like actors and actresses,” she said. “We go on stage and we perform to an audience.”

Freeo said right-wing legislators mischaracterize drag.

“Art is not something sexual,” she said. “Drag is not about being sexual or converting kids to be gay. It is to entertain, educate, and explain the history of drag and the queer community so people understand and we can create a welcoming environment.”

Cookie Puss, a drag queen who began performing in Boise two years ago, said performers cater their shows based on the ages of audience members.

“If there are children in our audience, our shows reflect that,” she said. “Just the same as you can have a rated PG movie, when there are children or the potential of children in our audience, we curate our content to make sure we’re sensitive to that.”

Puss said she did not grow up watching drag, but she said watching it as a child would have changed her life for the better. She urged legislators to attend a drag show.

“We are creating something, we are expressing ourselves and we’re giving something back to the community that I believe we truly need,” she said. “It’s easy to make us this scary thing, but the reality is, we’re just fabulous.”