Photo:NBC News
NBC News
Meet the Press Reportsreturns to NBC News NOW on Friday with its season 6 premiere, focused on the growing anti-drag movement in America and what it means for the livelihood of LGBTQ+ performers across the nation.
Along the way, Hylton meets with Knoxville-based drag queen Story VanNess, a transgender woman who hosts a weekly drag show at a coffee shop-turned-karaoke bar, and her friend, drag performer Harri Scari, to see how they are holding up as pawns of a right-wing political movement.
“[Our] agenda is to just exist and to feel valid,” Harri says in an exclusive clip from the segment, shown below. Story jumps in: “The agenda is to be able to go to the bathroom without having to worry about being punched in the face.”
“All we can do is say that it’s bad and it’s wrong and, ‘Please don’t do this to us,’ but [conservatives] have found us to be a really effective political tool,” Harri adds.
In the episode, Hylton also speaks with Republican state Sen. Jack Johnson, Tennessee’s Senate majority leader, about his motive in helping passlegislation that puts heavy restrictions on drag shows. (Tennessee’s bill was the first of its kind in the United States, but more than a dozen other states are already following suit.)
Other featured interviews in the premiere include a Nashville-area mother of four who opposes the drag movement; a Tennessee pastor who has advocated for laws to restrict drag shows; Jonathan Hamilt, executive director of Drag Story Hour in San Francisco; and three Drag Story Hour participants — Landa Lakes, Beatrice and Panda Dulce — the latter of whom was hosting a children’s reading event at a library in June 2022when a group of Proud Boys stormed inand began spewing hateful slurs and threats.
source: people.com
