Submitted Photo The performers of the Just a Brunch of Queens and Kings all-ages drag show pose at the event, which took place days after the performers had their information shared in posts by the Facebook page Protect North Dakota Kids. Photo provided by URL Radio.

Pride was celebrated across the nation last month, including multiple parades, drag shows and other events in North Dakota. However, the festivities were marred by the emergence of culture war conflict between drag queen performers, Pride event organizers and anonymous individuals behind a Facebook page opposed to all-ages drag shows.

On June 5, a Facebook page called Protect North Dakota Kids appeared on the site, announcing with its first post that it is a grassroots organization opposed to what it calls “LGBTQ and CRT propaganda, & harmful, irreversible ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors.”

The page’s posts included a smattering of Bible verses and Christian-flavored hashtags and slogans and memes condemning LGBTQ+ lifestyles, labeling the drag queens as “groomers” and decrying their exposure to children.

Soon it shifted gears and began a concerted effort to spotlight drag performers participating in two all-ages drag shows in Bismarck, sharing images of them in and out of makeup to connect their drag personas to their legal names and the communities they live in. At the time of the uproar the page was followed by approximately 75 anonymous individuals.

The page’s critics have accused it of doxxing, the act of revealing identifying information about an individual or group online, such as real names, home addresses, workplaces, phone numbers and other personal information. A term born from modern Internet culture wars, doxxing is a relatively new phenomenon, and very few states have laws banning the practice.

The social media activity of PNDK avoids private information about the performers and direct threats or calls to take action against any of the subjects. The posts also use images and content shared publicly on the queens’ social media accounts, and there have been no allegations that hacked or private content has been shared.

Stacy Sturm owns URL Radio in Bismarck and organized the “Just a Brunch of Queens and Kings” event that was held on June 18 to fundraise for the Trevor Project, a nonprofit that focuses on suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth. Sturm worked for years in anti-human trafficking and with at-risk youths, some of whom were LGBTQ+ teens. Most drag shows take place in venues that have age limits, and it was important to Sturm to hold one in a place where teens could attend.

“A lot of LGBTQ teens who aren’t supported at home run away and fall to prey to human trafficking,” Sturm said. “The whole point is to show teens that even though their families don’t support them, there is support out there.”

The day before the scheduled Pride events, Protect North Dakota Kids published an image created by Dakota OutRight to thank and acknowledge local businesses in Bismarck that sponsor and support Pride. It wasn’t an explicit call to boycott, but the response against it was immediate.

North Dakota drag queens, LGBTQ+ organizations and local businesses responded with fiery defiance, as dozens of Facebook users flooded the page’s comments section with rebukes against the page and support for everyone the page was calling out.

“I was really worked up about the page, but it’s only like four people actively participating. The rest is us pushing back,” Sturm said. “It seemed like when some people first saw the page, they were on board with it, until they saw how crazy it was.”

Many of the drag queens targeted by PNDK openly connected their drag and public identities and shrugged off the sites’ attempt to call them out, viewing the controversy as free attention for their events and exposure for their personas. One queen named Janessa Jaye Champagne from Fargo even took inspiration from exchanges with the page administrator for a whole line of merchandise, with all proceeds set aside for The Trevor Project.

The lone exception was a post outing the Minot-based drag queen Kara Fiyera’s legal name and identity, something she had not done herself.

“I tried to keep them as separate as possible, but not out of shame or anything. As a drag queen, you kind of become a public figure. I wanted to keep the two separate, because I’m a person, and Kara is just a character,” Fiyera said. Fiyera requested she be referred to by her drag persona for this story.

Fiyera described the initial aftermath of the page’s posts as scary and uncertain, given their proximity in time to a recent incident in which members of a right-wing organization called Patriot Front were arrested on their way in a U-Haul to disrupt a Pride event in Idaho.

“We didn’t know what to expect. We all decided at the same time, we’re going to do the show,” Fiyera recalled.

Sturm would hire extra security for the Brunch performance because of rumors that protestors had purchased tickets to the event, but only four individuals protested outside the venue. PNDK posted photos that appeared to be from the event but that were not taken by URL Radio, suggesting that one or more of the page members were in attendance. A confrontation between attendees of the Pride event and the same group of protesters occurred at the drag show on the Capitol lawn that afternoon, but no large-scale disruption occurred.

“I am kind of on the fence in agreeing with them that drag shows aren’t a place for kids, but any performer worth their salt knows how to make their performance appropriate for the audience. When we perform at all-ages events, it’s a job. I’m not coming to snatch your kids. I’m a performer. Drag is theater for a bossy, bossy actress,” said Fiyera.

Fiyera spent some time interacting with an administrator of the site through Facebook messaging before the event, trying to address the concerns of the Facebook group and invite members to the drag show, something the page administrator rejected.

“They already have this preconceived notion of what it is going to be. They think it’s going to be risqué and really inappropriate. What it actually is, is seven layers of dance tights, a corset, and nude-colored fabric covering up mostly male bodies. I literally have more fabric on me than a church lady would,” Fiyera said.

The administrators of Protect North Dakota Kids operated anonymously until June 20, when a post was published revealing their intention to organize and register as a 501c3 nonprofit. It also announced that the executive director would be Washburn resident Keith Hapip Jr., who recently was elected a city commissioner.

The Monday edition of The Minot Daily News will provide more coverage of this story, including an interview with Hapip that will explore the motivation for starting the Facebook page, PNDK’s campaign to spotlight other drag events in the state and the continued pushback from the North Dakota drag/LGBTQ+ community.