Drag show of defiance: How one Colorado community proudly stands up to anti-LGBTQ threats

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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — When an irate man threatened to shoot up a downtown bar because it hosts a monthly drag show, canceling the next show wasn’t an option for the cast. 

And they didn’t have to. 

Within hours of the July 17 incident, Steamboat Springs police had a suspect in custody — 28-year-old John Clark, who was arrested in his home and later charged with inciting destruction of life or property, menacing, harassment and bias-motivated crimes. 

As Schmiggity’s Live Music and Dance Bar prepared for another installment of Fresh Drag Show on Wednesday night, extra security was on hand, thanks to financial help from a local nonprofit. And a host of community leaders were lined up to perform as part of the evening’s entertainment, all of them dressed in full drag. 

“I really feel like it’s important for everyone in the community to step up and say, ‘Hey — this is all of us. If one person is threatened, we are all threatened,’” said Chris Ray, the founder of several local groups dedicated to sober living, substance use disorder recovery and mental health in the service industry, who wore a ruffled yellow gown and performed as “Belle” in a “Beauty and the Beast” duet that took an R-rated turn at the end. “Everyone should feel safe to be creative, to be out, and to feel like the rest of the community supports them.”

Hosted the third Wednesday of every month by Schmiggity’s, the Fresh Drag Show last week was promoted as its biggest and best ever, billed as “A Night of Drag Delight and Defiance.”

But the show was about much more than entertainment — it was a rallying cry in support of the local LGBTQ community in the wake of threats to “shoot up” the same show the month before.

An April 2023 report by GLAAD found 161 incidents of anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag events since early 2022.

“I know what it’s like to be targeted,” special guest performer Finn Hymn Alnite told the crowd Wednesday.

Visiting from Colorado Springs, Finn described losing two friends in the 2022 Club Q mass shooting during a drag show that left five people dead and 22 others injured. 

“And I’m proof that you cannot disappear the queer,” Finn shouted to deafening cheers.

Ray said he believes most negative reactions to drag performances are fear-based, and that some people don’t like to have their self-perceptions challenged. 

Events like the monthly drag show provide a space where “you get permission to be yourself — I really celebrate that — spreading the message that we all have permission to be ourselves,” Ray said.

Chelsie Holmes is the programs director for Queer Futures and was another amateur special guest performer. 

“A lot of the point of drag,” Holmes said, is to challenge gender norms and how masculinity and femininity is typically communicated. “Drag turns all of that stuff on its head. It really is just about questioning and even parodying those gender norms.”

She also notes that performers embody their on-stage characters for the entertainment of others and thus anyone — of any gender or sexual orientation — can be a drag performer. 

It’s also a place where “LGTBQ people can take up space in an unapologetic way that is not watered down for anyone,” she said, acknowledging that “some people find that threatening.”

Queer Futures opened its doors in Steamboat Springs in January and is the region’s first brick-and-mortar, comprehensive LGBTQ resource center. The organization formed in an effort to address issues identified by the community, Holmes said, including bullying in schools, access to counseling and health care, and homelessness. 

She said the growth of the nascent nonprofit has been rapid and well-supported by community partners. 

With Steamboat holding its fourth Pride Festival in June and the growth of events like her nonprofit and the drag show, Holmes said the increase in visibility for the LGBTQ community “is kind of a double-edged sword. When you are living under the radar you are safer … but it is also a really stifling place to be. … Progress can be made that can’t be made when you are in the closet.”

Vivian Smotherman, a transgender teacher, farmer and U.S. Navy veteran from Durango who is running for the Senate District 6 seat, was recently attacked in an email sent out by the Colorado GOP. If elected, she would be the state’s first openly trans state senator. (Elected in 2018, Colorado State Rep. Brianna Titone is the state’s first trans lawmaker and the fourth in the U.S.)

Smotherman said misunderstanding causes some to equate drag performers and transgender people, but also said there is strategy behind the linkage and targeting of transgender people. 

“The extreme right figured it couldn’t just go after gays and lesbians — the demographic became too strong and stopped hiding,” she said. “They had to find another target … a convenient victim is what it comes down to.”

The ACLU is currently tracking 527 anti-LGTBQ bills across the U.S., though none in Colorado. There were several ballot measures proposed this year in Colorado that did not make it, including one that required public school athletes to compete on teams that correlated with their assigned sex at birth and another that demanded public school officials notify parents within 48 hours of learning that a student was experiencing “gender incongruence.”

The most important message Smotherman sees coming out of events like Wednesday’s drag show of defiance in Steamboat Springs is that “We are not victims. We are not going to be intimidated. And we are not going away.”

In the first photo, Finn Hymn Alnite performs to the song “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” at the Fresh Drag Show at Schmiggity’s Live Music & Dance Bar in Steamboat Springs. In the second photo, the crowd as Jack Darling performs. (Matt Stensland, Special to The Colorado Sun)

A sense of safety and belonging — for everyone

Ray believes threats like those made during the July show need to be taken seriously. “But we are not only here to help the people being threatened.”  

The man who made the threats also needs help, said Ray, who created SoBoat Steamboat, a group for people struggling with substance use disorder. “We also need to support people who feel disconnected or have feelings of fear or otherness. And those who feel left out, and we need to ask why, and get a better understanding of why they have so much anger, fear and resentment.”

Steamboat resident Chad McGown, who said he is a big supporter of local artists and attended the July Fresh Drag Show, attributes the threats to ignorance and a general societal fear of anything perceived as different. 

McGown said the crowd Wednesday was the biggest he’s seen all summer.

In the small community, the performers are friends to many in the audience and the show is very interactive. 

“I don’t think there is a large enough understanding about what a drag show offers,” said Hayden resident Madison Fatjo, who describes herself as Fresh Drag’s No. 1 fan. 

“It’s a place of love and acceptance and happiness,” Fatjo said.

While Fatjo rarely misses Fresh Drag, she attended Wednesday with her mother, who had never been to a drag show.

“Fresh Drag and the LGBTQ community are not going anywhere,” she said. “And thankfully the Steamboat Police and Steamboat as a community have surrounded and supported them.”

Holmes, the programs director of Queer Futures, said July’s incident was traumatizing for many in the community, especially in light of the Club Q shooting. 

“I’m so grateful people took action when they heard threats and that it was taken care of very quickly,” she said.

According to the arrest affidavit, multiple people at a nearby bar heard Clark repeatedly saying he was going to go shoot up Schmiggity’s because of the drag show. Employees from that bar called Schmiggity’s, and Schmiggity’s employees called the police. 

Police then quickly determined Clark was not at either bar and then looked for him at his home in Steamboat Springs.

Clark’s roommate told police that Clark had a hunting rifle at home, and the roommate “continually stated that what John stated was not OK. He stated that he tried to get him to stop talking about it but John would not,” the arrest affidavit said.

Clark is next scheduled to appear in court Aug. 28

Queer Futures helped cover the cost of additional security Wednesday, with one police officer stationed at the back door and another officer in a police cruiser out front, show host Kitten Coquette Larouge said. It is common for special events to pay the police department for security beyond what regular patrols can provide.

Following the July threats, several meetings were held with law enforcement and members of the drag group, employees of Schmiggity’s, and members of the larger LGBTQ community.

On Thursday, Steamboat Police Department Detective Sgt. Sam Silva said the police take threats of gun violence against any group of people or location very seriously. There were no security concerns or threats around Wednesday’s drag show, he said.

“I think the community and everyone involved responded well — there was good communication,” he said. “Everyone was very cooperative in telling what happened, and we were able to follow through and make sure people feel safe and secure.”

Same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in Colorado in 1972. (Three decades later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case out of Texas that sodomy laws are unconstitutional, though some states still have them on the books.)

Gay bars — often the only safe space where the LGBTQ community could gather —were routinely raided by police in the 1960s, leading to the Stonewall riots in New York in the summer of 1969, which marked a turning point in the country’s gay rights movement. 

Silva also noted the outreach work the police department does with a number of groups, including the LGTBQ community, who have experienced historical discrimination by law enforcement. 

“We are working with them to bridge that gap,” Silva said. “To build that trust.”

One person’s quest to create community

Wearing a short American flag dress, Madame Sassysquatch the Rafting Queen kicked off the Aug. 22 show with a rowdy performance of Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman.”

Sassysquatch is the founder and producer of the Fresh Drag Show and one of its most popular performers.  

After moving to the mountains from Chicago, Sassysquatch immediately noticed there was a dearth in LGBTQ-friendly places and events. “I missed being able to go out and be surrounded by like minded people.” 

So Sassysquatch, who had performed some amateur drag, launched the idea for a monthly show with a regular cast of local “kings, queens and in-betweens.” 

Trying to find a host venue, Sassysquatch encountered a lot of “no’s” and nonresponses before asking the owners of Schmiggity’s, who gave an immediate and enthusiastic response. 

Fresh Drag Show celebrated its first anniversary in June. 

Sassysquatch hopes to grow Fresh Drag’s reach in terms of traveling around the state and welcoming other performers to Steamboat, as well as creating more festivals, events and fundraising opportunities. 

After the July show wrapped up and the cast first learned about the threats, Sassysquatch said the first reaction was “Wow, it finally happened. I kind of expected it sooner.” 

The second reaction? To make sure the cast made it home safely. 

At the same time, Sassysquatch doesn’t understand the objection. Drag is performance art and just good fun. 

“Ultimately this threat has had a positive impact in bringing our community together and helping Fresh Drag grow and bringing awareness to ignorance,” Sassysquatch said. “Drag is for everybody. Yes, it is an LGBTQ-oriented night but we love and welcome everybody.” 

Sassysquatch said the support from police alone was “monumental.”

Silva said “a ton of people” made a point to tell the police officer on duty inside the bar they were thankful for his presence. 

Clark’s name wasn’t mentioned Wednesday night, aside from a brief moment when one of the performers displayed and then tore up a sign reading “F*** Clark” during a rendition of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.”

During the show’s finale, Sassyquatch — in blond curls, a hot pink minidress and lighted cape — led the entire cast in an emotional performance of “This Is Me” from soundtrack to musical “The Greatest Showman,” belting out the lyrics “Look out ’cause here I come/ And I’m marching on to the beat I drum / I’m not scared to be seen/ I make no apologies, this is me.”

For Holmes, the most important message out of the show Wednesday and in response to the threats of violence is that “We are not going anywhere.” 

“LGBTQ people aren’t just going to go away because you don’t like us. We are part of this community. We are part of the culture of this community,” she said. “We are going to take up space and exist in all of our gloriousness. And we are not afraid and we are not intimidated. In fact we are going to double down.”

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.