A Placer County high school agreed to host a drag show. Then conservatives found out | Opinion
A drag show organized by Placer County’s only peer support group for LGBTQ+ youth was canceled last week, the latest in a series of actions that have marginalized and stigmatized queer and transgender people in the conservative county north of Sacramento.
The Roseville Joint Union High School District originally granted permission to use district facilities for the drag show, but district leaders ultimately bowed to community pressure from conservative and religious groups. The drag show was set to take place on March 31 at Roseville High School until the district pulled the plug on it.
District officials claim that it wasn’t political pressure that caused them to change their minds. They say drag show organizers misrepresented key details of the event and that once district officials learned more about plans for the show, they determined it would violate district policies.
“Once clarified as a drag show event involving minor students, an administrative review determined the event did not comply with Board Policy and Administrative Regulation 1330, resulting in revocation of the Civic Permit,” said RJUHSD Superintendent John Becker. “Our district did not make this decision due to homophobic or intolerant views.”
The show in question is an annual fundraiser organized by The Landing Spot, a nonreligious support group for LGBTQ+ youth. It is run by Loomis Basin Congregational United Church of Christ Pastor Casey Tinnin, who is gay.
The money raised by The Landing Spot goes to fund Camp Fruitloop, a summer camp for LGBTQ+ youth.
Tinnin denied misrepresenting the event to district officials, and said the district provided him an entirely different reason as to why the event was no longer allowed to proceed at Roseville High School.
“When I spoke to the district by phone, I was told their concern for safety for staff and students (was) their primary concern,” Tinnin said. “If they needed clarification (about the drag show), I imagine they would have asked those questions before withdrawing so we could resolve it.”
RJUHSD School Board President Pete Constant said the district took issue with “this type of show” featuring “minor students with an adult, cash-tipping audience.” Ultimately, the drag show was “not appropriate on our school grounds,” he said.
“Our district’s response would have been the same if this was a burlesque show or a Chippendale (or Magic Mike) style show featuring heterosexual performers and audience,” Constant said via email.
But Tinnin said Constant was basing his opinion on misconceptions used as a pretext to cancel the show.
“That speaks to the … assumptions that this community and this district have about who we (are) and what we were hoping to accomplish,” Tinnin said. “Our kids in The Landing Spot … were robbed of (this show) because a segment of our community has massive (misconceptions) about who they think we are.”
“If (Constant) truly cares, he would have called me,” he said.
The drag show’s cancellation comes after the state of Tennessee just passed the nation’s first law restricting drag shows. The new Tennessee law will, as reported by The New York Times, make “adult cabaret on public property or anywhere a child could see it a criminal offense.” The states of Kentucky, Arizona and Oklahoma have also introduced anti-drag show legislation.
There have been recent efforts by some conservatives to brand drag shows and drag culture as inherently “predatory,” while others have claimed that drag “grooms” or “sexualizes” children. This is patently false. Drag traces its roots to the age of William Shakespeare when actors were often asked to perform as another gender.
The Landing Spot’s drag show was planned as a family-friendly event and would have featured performers between the ages of 14 and 18. Drag allows performers to express themselves — and, in a conservative community like Placer, a safe space to be unabashedly queer, passionate and artistic is a rare and beautiful experience for so many of our young queer and trans neighbors.
Without a venue, The Landing Spot still planned to move forward with the drag show on March 31. But after speaking with Landing Spot parents, Tinnin decided to cancel the show after a number of hateful and threatening messages sent to the organization raised fears about the safety of performers and audience members.
Pastors speak out
Placer County’s religious leaders have been vocal about their opposition to the drag show. Roseville’s The Family Church Senior Pastor Matthew Oliver had taken to Facebook to express his “outrage” over the drag show, and Rocklin megachurch Destiny’s Pastor Greg Fairrington called out “the progressive liberal agenda that has been birthed in the pit of hell” in a recent Sunday sermon that also mentioned the show.
Placer County has struggled with a blurring of church and state. RJUHSD School Board President Constant, for instance, is not only a faculty member at Rocklin’s William Jessup University, a Christian college that has previously been accused of homophobia, but his consulting firm was also hired by Oliver’s city council campaign.
“Roseville is getting better, but this sort of hate coming from a church should be terrifying to us all,” Tinnin said.
This year’s show would have been the third annual drag performance put on by The Landing Spot. The first show, in March 2020, saw 150 attendees. Last year, all 200 available tickets were sold. And this year, with a goal of 500 attendees, The Landing Spot had already sold 200 tickets in less than a week for the show.
Tinnin said those protesting the drag show are placing already marginalized groups at greater risk by using language and rhetoric that makes queer youth seem dangerous. Tinnin also wonders if the protest against this year’s drag show might be a fundraising tactic. Indeed, one of the loudest groups that protested the drag show was The American Council, a Placer County-based nonprofit that seeks to spread “a biblical worldview” and which has already, according to its website, “spent almost half-a-million on California advocacy efforts.”
“We must continue to protect children, speak truth and love fiercely,” said American Council President Tanner DiBella in an emailed statement.
The attack on LGBTQ+ rights in Placer County has led local groups to vocalize their support for The Landing Spot and Placer’s LGBTQ+ community. Messages of support poured in from 106.5’s morning radio show “The Wake Up Call,” local protestant churches and the Sacramento LGBT Community Center.
“Hate has no place in Placer County or throughout the Sacramento region and (we) will continue to advocate for equity, justice and the health and wellness of all LGBTQ+ individuals,” reads a public statement from the Sac LGBT Community Center. “Organizations like The Landing Spot are a refuge for LGBTQ+ youth that provide a safe and affirming environment.”
Support LGBTQ+ community
Organizers hope the 2023 drag show will go on at a later date. Tickets are being refunded, but ticket buyers can also opt to donate the money to The Landing Spot for Camp Fruitloop.
“We are asking people to send letters of love and support to our youth,” Tinnin said. “We will take the letters of kindness and plaster them all over the walls of the dorms of the (summer) camp so that the youth can read them.”
Right now is the time to show our young queer and trans neighbors that we love and support them.