BARTLESVILLE, Okla. — A drag queen who headlined a show at a Bartlesville park told FOX23 the controversy over the performance has affected her livelihood.
MORE: Dispute erupts in Bartlesville over Pride event drag show
Keisha Kye has been a drag queen for 32 years, but lately, she said performing isn’t as fun as it used to be.
“I don’t know anymore,” Kye said. “It’s getting scary. Someone actually sent a hangman’s noose to one of my entertainers.”
Kye was one of the headliners at the Bartlesville Pride drag show. Hundreds of people were at the event in September. The event was held in Unity Square, and FOX23 previously reported the debate surrounding Bartlesville Pride. Kye told FOX23 the show was family friendly.
“Especially when the kids are around, I look at it more as entertainment, as a clown, like just as a fun clown person that’s going to come up and have a good time,” Kye said.
Some people, like Joel Rabin, disagreed.
“It’s lewd,” he said. “It’s sexually explicit.”
Protestors at the Pride event said the drag show was inappropriate for children.
Around 2,000 people signed an online petition calling for the Bartlesville City Council to ban adult entertainment in public spaces.
The City of Bartlesville did note the signatures were unverified.
After a 4-1 vote on the issue, the council directed the city attorney to work with outside counsel to come up with an ordinance to regulate “adult entertainment” in public city spaces.
Rabin backed the petition, and he told FOX23 it’s a big win for community standards.
“It’s reflecting the community’s values, and I think it’s a great win,” he said.
He also said he hopes Bartlesville can lead the way nationally.
“If what we’re doing here become (sic) a national issue or a national model of how to fight back on a slippery slope, and move it back up where values and morals … and law have more position than we do now, great,” he said.
Kye said the fallout from the drag performance has affected her livelihood. She told FOX23 she’s had some of her shows canceled. She said she, and other drag queens, have done nothing wrong.
MORE: Organizers of Broken Arrow’s first-ever Pride Fest get pushback from community members, online
“I feel like their shows and what they’re being accused of is not true,” she said. “So therefore, there should be no reason for shows not to continue. I respect children being there, and I can see the debate. Don’t misunderstand, I can see the debate with children being at a drag show, but I do not feel in any way it’s adult entertainment.”
Kye continued, “We’re here just to make sure that you have a good time, I have a good time, and hopefully you feel loved. Because that’s what it’s all about.”
FOX23 reached out to the Bartlesville City Attorney. He said he has been instructed to draft language on the city ordinance, but he is still working on that.
Oklahomans for Equality also told FOX23 they will fight any attempt by the city to limit or prevent the expression and use of first amendment rights.