A popular Arizona drag queen is blasting Kari Lake — the front-runner in the state's Republican primary for governor — as a "hypocrite" for targeting drag performers, saying she was a frequent attendee of his shows.
Rick Stevens, who has performed as Barbra Seville in the state for decades, said he felt compelled to speak out against his former friend after she latched onto a right-wing campaign against drag queen story hours, in which drag queens read to children in public spaces.
"They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens. They took down our Flag and replaced it with a rainbow. They seek to disarm Americans and militarize our Enemies," Lake said in a tweet last week. "Let's bring back the basic: Gods, Guns & Glory."
Stevens fired back on Facebook, saying that since Lake "waded in to the war on drag queens, know she is a complete hypocrite."
"I’ve performed for Kari’s birthday, I’ve performed in her home (with children present,) and I’ve performed for her at some of the seediest bars in Phoenix," Stevens wrote.
Stevens also posted pictures of himself in character with Lake over the years, including one where she was dressed as Elvis Presley.
Seville has also made an appearance on Lake's Instagram page, according to The Washington Post. A 2014 post showed them hugging, with Lake captioning, “Half of what I learned about makeup I learned from watching friends like @barbraseville.” The newspaper said the post was deleted after it inquired about it.
Lake's campaign said in a statement over the weekend that Stevens' "accusations are full of lies. The event in question was a party at someone else’s house and the performer was there as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator."
In a Twitter post, Lake's campaign acknowledged she was once friends with Stevens, but said he had "become radicalized in recent years" and resorted "to public attacks on Lake for her political views."
The statement said Lake "is serving Mr. Stevens a defamatory lawsuit and is happy to do the same to Media outlets that report these lies as truth."
In the same post, the Donald Trump-endorsed candidate's campaign said, “Media is the Enemy of the People. And frankly — the right hand of the Devil.”
It also continued the criticism of Drag Queen Story Hour, saying, "Like most sane people, Kari Lake is very much opposed to grown men or women dancing provocatively for children, especially at the expense of the taxpayer. Why would anybody be opposed to this?"
Drag Queen Story Hour was started by activist Michelle Tea in San Francisco in 2015. The nonprofit group's website said it "celebrates reading through the glamorous art of drag. Our chapter network creates diverse, accessible, and culturally-inclusive family programming where kids can express their authentic selves and become bright lights of change in their communities."
Chapters have since opened across the U.S., and other similar organizations and groups have formed.
Long the subject of protests, the events were seized on by Republican politicians earlier this month after a video of a performance at a “Drag the Kids to Pride Drag Show” in Texas showing children watching drag performers dance and tipping them with cash went viral.
The uproar led to more protests, including an incident earlier this month in which a group described as members of the Proud Boys disrupted a story hour in California, shouting "homophobic and transphobic slurs" at the organizers in front of the children, Alameda County sheriff’s Lt. Ray Kelly said. The sheriff's office said it has opened a hate crime investigation into the incident.
Stevens told The Associated Press that despite the harassment, drag isn't going away.
“The fact is, drag has existed forever,” Stevens said. “I’ve been doing drag longer than Kari has been a Republican. But if you want to outlaw drag in front of kids, you better free up your calendar because it’s ingrained in our culture. The first drag queen I saw was Bugs Bunny.”
