Drag me to the polls: queens come together to publicize pro-LGBTQ+ PAC

Six of America’s most well-known drag queens are teaming up for a new project, and it’s not a bottomless brunch , drag bingo or a Beyoncé tribute night.

Jinkx Monsoon , Monét X Change, Peppermint, Alaska, BenDeLaCreme and Willam, all RuPaul’s Drag Race alums, have launched Drag PAC, the nation’s first political action committee focused on getting Gen Z voters to the polls and preventing state legislation threatening to roll back LGBTQ+ rights.

“We as queer people have to recognize that we are part of a community, and the reason that we have the ease of life that we have now is because so many people worked for decades to make that happen,” said BenDeLaCreme, a two-time contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. “It’s our job to keep things moving in the right direction.”

As previously reported by USA TODAY, of the 25 anti-drag performance bills proposed across the states in 2024, 14 were defeated, eight were introduced, and two are advancing this year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union . Two states, Tennessee and Montana, have already banned drag performances .

“We’re in the middle of something historic,” Monét X Change says in the video. “This is the most important election cycle for queer people’s rights and freedoms in our lifetime.”

What is a political action committee?

Much of the money in politics doesn’t come from small, individual donors. It comes from deep-pocketed contributors and a political action committee , usually organized to raise money to elect or defeat a political candidate or ballot issue, as previously reported by USA TODAY.

Drag PAC is registered as a hybrid with the Federal Elections Commission , allowing it to take unlimited donations from select groups to fund independent expenditures while maintaining a separate account subject to restrictions for contributions to federal candidates. Its initial filing shows a total of $20,000 in donations.

“It’s not on you as an individual voter to fix all of these problems. It’s on you to use your voice to say, ‘Damn it, fix these damn problems.’” said Monsoon , winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 5. “Things do get better over time if we continue to push forward and not allow people to cause us to retreat.”

Cy Neff reports on Wyoming politics for USA TODAY. You can reach him at cneff@usatoday.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @CyNeffNews

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Drag me to the polls: queens come together to publicize pro-LGBTQ+ PAC