At the Tulsa Theater Thursday night as ticket holders lined up for a drag queen Christmas show, three men accompanied by several youths and a separate set of anti-abortion activists took turns shouting anti-LGBTQ messages into a megaphone at patrons and a group of counter-protestors.
One man who shouted into the megaphone for about an hour identified himself as David Grisham from Texas. According to news reports, Grisham, who once ran for mayor of Amarillo, Texas, has traveled as far as Alaska to disrupt LGBTQ celebrations.
“You know we’re real men and you know you’re drawn to us,” Grisham shouted at the group of women counter-protestors, calling them “whores” and “old lesbian hags.” The other two men with Grisham were only willing to identify themselves as Jim and Rich.
Grisham said the men were from different parts of the country and represented different ministries.
"We're Bible-believing Christians, every one of us," said Rich. "We're brothers in Christ."
The counter-protestors set up a speaker and danced to pop music with rainbow umbrellas. Tiffany Taylor, who was a nurse at Tulsa’s now-shuttered abortion clinic, said the goal was to lighten the mood.
“This is a ridiculous display of ignorance and hate, and there’s enough of that in the world. So we wanted to come out and make sure people that are going to the drag show are having a good time and know they are supported,” said Taylor.
Emma Braselton, who was an escort at Tulsa's abortion clinic, said she was familiar with the anti-LGBTQ protestors.
“If you can kind of drag the attention away from them, because that’s what they crave on, they’ve already moved back away from us because they don’t like our music. So, we know what to do, we’ve done it before, these were the same protestors that came to the clinic. When we had a clinic,” said Braselton.
Braselton’s mother, Susan Braselton, echoed the sentiments of her daughter.
“I was a coordinator for the escorts at Tulsa Women’s Clinic. All these guys came up there to harass women from getting abortions. Now they’re here trying to change their tune. They’re going after another ‘other’ that they don’t like,” said Braselton.
Patron Ruth Weeks wasn’t deterred from entering the event with her family. She said it was her first time at a drag show since she became interested from watching RuPaul’s Drag Race on television.
“I love their outfits, I love their make-up. I would love to know how to put their make-up on. And their humor,” said Weeks.
As for the protestors, Weeks said she didn’t think they had any deep wisdom.
“I think they have a lot to learn. Live and let live,” said Weeks.
