Posted on 06/19/2025 10:57:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
Isaiah Esquire danced his way through the Oregon House of Representatives on Wednesday to the sounds of Aretha Franklin, followed closely by fellow Black drag performer Aqua Flora, who held a pride flag aloft as they sashayed down the chamber’s center aisle.
“Normally, colleagues, we don’t applaud during performances,” Speaker Pro Tempore David Gomberg, a Democrat from Otis, told the chamber after the lawmakers gave the performers a standing ovation for their lip sync. “But there are times when I think exceptions are appropriate.”
Esquire and Flora were featured performers in the House the day before Juneteenth, exemplifying the artistry called out in a resolution by Portland Rep. Travis Nelson honoring the history of Black drag in Oregon.
“Your presence, artistry and courage are a powerful reminder of the joy, resilience and cultural impact of drag in Oregon and beyond,” Nelson said in a speech. “Thank you for sharing your light with us this morning.”
Nelson, who is Oregon’s first openly LGBTQ African American member of the House, put forth the resolution in February, during Black History Month, after noticing that tributes at the Capitol rarely recognized members of the state’s LGBTQ community. The resolution honors dozens of Oregon drag performers, including Esquire, noted their accomplishments and congratulated them for making Oregon’s Black drag community “one of the most vibrant and vital in the nation.”
“I thought it’d be wonderful to shine a light on the Black drag community that was decimated by AIDS, to be frank,” Nelson said. “We’re among the people who threw the first bricks at the Stonewall Riot that launched the gay liberation movement.”
House lawmakers adopted the resolution 34-9, with all no votes cast by Republicans. Only one Republican lawmaker, Cyrus Javadi of Tillamook, sat at their desk during Esquire and Flora’s performance. Several left the chamber and at least two sat at the back of the room.
House Republican Dwayne Yunker, from Grants Pass, decried the planned performance on social media the day before it took place, calling it a “complete waste of taxpayer money.”
The performers were not paid and cost no taxpayer dollars, Nelson noted. Dance and musical performances and prayers regularly kick off floor sessions, and resolutions are such a typical part of pageantry in the Oregon House that just Monday lawmakers adopted a resolution designating the T-Bone as the state’s official steak.
While his colleagues were notably absent, Javadi sat near the front of the chamber with his teen daughter, clapping along with the performance. He voted in favor of the resolution, as did Salem Republican Kevin Mannix.
In a speech, Javadi reminded his colleagues that the founding documents of the United States protect Americans’ right to express themselves freely.
“Today’s resolution honors Oregonians who have exercised that right. Who have used their voices to contribute to their communities. And while we may not all share the same beliefs or backgrounds, we share this place, this country and this Constitution,” Javadi said. “I support the spirit of this resolution because it affirms that no matter who you are, or what you believe, you matter and you’re welcome here.”
Several Democrats spoke in favor of the resolution, including Rep. Tawna Sanchez, co-chair of the powerful Joint Ways & Means committee.
Each week, Sanchez brings to the House dais elaborate, colorful and elegant flower arrangements, noted by House members and staffers alike. The weekly offering is a tribute, she told her colleagues, to a friend of hers named Bill Looker, who was also a drag queen who went by the name Tracey St. James.
In the early ‘90s, when Sanchez moved from California back to Oregon with a child to feed, she struggled to find work in political organizing, she said. Sanchez met Looker, who was a florist, after she secured a job at a flower delivery service. That company was owned by Lady Elaine Peacock, an iconic Black Portland drag queen named in Nelson’s resolution. In that way, Peacock is also the reason House members see flowers in their chamber each week, Sanchez said.
“It’s so very, very important to honor our history, honor who we were, honor who we are now and honor who we will be in the future,” Sanchez said.
Throughout the performance, Flora could feel the weight of the room, they said. They could sense the pins-and-needles anticipation of lawmakers wondering how the lip sync would go and also the gravity of performing on the House floor to plant a flag for Oregon’s Black drag artists, past and present.
“It was just really powerful and beautiful to be able to show up and be just a fragment of what the drag community provides to Oregon,” they said. “What got me through the performance was feeling the ancestors of all these people in the room with us.”
Tear trails shone on Esquire’s cheeks as he listened to Nelson’s speeches and watched the House cast its vote. He said he couldn’t help but think of the performers who wouldn’t have their name called or would miss out on a chance to witness the historic moment. He’d felt a responsibility to move the House members with the performance, he said, and to open hearts.
Esquire and Flora chose to lip sync Aretha Franklin’s “Deeper Love” and Beyonce’s “I was here” for a reason, they said.
“Being in a room like that, and being able to sing the lyrics ‘I was here’ is a moment that I will keep with me for a really, really long time,” Esquire said.
Nearly? I guess some poor schlub had to be there as a witness.
“””A perfect example of how far down we as a society have fallen.””
Idiocracy comes to life.
They aren’t.
It’s a form of projection. They feel dirty and freakish. As they should.
If you would like more information about what’s happening in Oregon, please FReepmail me. Please send me your name by FReepmail if you want to be on this list.
Time for all Christians and Jews to get
out — fast.
(Gen.19)
Mannix began as a “conservative” Democrat three decades ago, but (rightly) decided that if he wanted to move up in Oregon he would do better as a Republican-—he has a mixed primary record (in both parties), and has lost a number of close general races, including one for Congress (which is how I recalled his name), close to twenty years ago.
The only state-wide office he has held is State GOP chair, which explains a good deal.
He likely considers himself a centrist-—conservative Dem//liberal Republican——which in Oregon makes one a nut.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.