Idaho Drag Performer Awarded $1.1 Million from Right Wing Blogger

Photo byIdaho Courts

An Idaho jury awarded more than $1.1 million to an Idaho drag performer who accused a far-right blogger of defaming him when the blogger falsely claimed that the drag queen exposed himself to a crowd, including children, during a Pride event in June 2022.

The Kootenai County District Court jury unanimously found that Summer Bushnell defamed Post Falls resident Eric Posey when she posted a doctored video of his performance with a blurred spot that she claimed covered his “fully exposed genitals,” the Coeur D’Alene Press reported.

In reality the unedited video showed no indecent exposure, and prosecutors declined to file charges of exposure.

The Idaho jury awarded Posey $926,000 in compensatory damages for defamation. Because Posey proved that Bushnell knew her allegations were false when she made them or that she made the accusations with reckless disregard for the truth, the jury awarded $250,000 in additional punitive damages.

The Pride event made national news at the time; not because of Posey’s performances, but because 31 members of a white supremacist group called Patriot Front were arrested nearby and charged with conspiracy to riot.

Bushnell posted a video that day of herself discussing the mass arrest as well as footage from Posey’s performance.

“Why did no one arrest the man in a dress who flashed his genitalia to minors and people in the crowd?” she said. “No one said anything about it, and there’s video. I’m going to put up a blurred video to prove it.”

The next day Bushnell published the edited version of the video, which she obtained from a local videographer. It garnered many thousands of views, sparking national news coverage and a police investigation. She suggested he had committed a felony and urged people to call police and have him arrested.

The jury deliberated for about three and a half hours after a five-day trial. Before returning the verdict, jurors asked the court if they could direct Bushnell to take down her posts about Posey and publicly apologize to him. First District Judge Ross Pittman, who presided over the trial, indicated they could not do so.

In a statement the North Idaho Pride Alliance, which organized the event where Posey performed, expressed gratitude to the jurors and affirmed its commitment to “ensuring the safety and well-being” of North Idaho’s LGBTQ+ communit