by Staff Reporter | Jul 31, 2026 | News
By Staff Reporter |
The city of Mesa will honor the birth of Jesus Christ with a drag queen show at its multimillion-dollar arts center.
“A Drag Queen Christmas” is the longest-running drag tour in America per the event organizers, Murray & Peter Present. This year, the group will perform at more than 40 locations across the country, including the Mesa Arts Center.
Those listed as performing at Mesa this year are drag performers under the stage names Crystal Methyd, Darlene Mitchell, Discord Addams, Juicy Love Dion, Myki Meeks, Nini Coco, and Silky Ganache. All Drag Queen Christmas performers were either contestants or winners in “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” a reality competition television series.
The event will take place in the Tom and Janet Ikeda Theater, which has more than 1,500 seats.
Publicly available video footage from past Drag Queen Christmas performances showcased some of the performers anticipated to take the stage in Mesa incorporating typical drag race elements in their performances: costumes and dance numbers peppered with sexually suggestive gestures and themes.
Performers incorporated air-humping, gyrating, and other sexual pantomimes; pulled out sex toy props; and made references to their genitalia or sexual desires.
Tickets for the Drag Race Christmas in Mesa cost between $43 to $151 for seating, and an additional $134 for a meet and greet. Based on seat pricing, a sold-out show could bring in around $130,000 in ticket sales.
The show is limited to people aged 18 and older, though in Arizona it’s not illegal for children to attend these shows.
Republican lawmakers initially attempted to prohibit the exposure of minors to drag shows, as well as ban public funds for them, but Gov. Katie Hobbs swiftly squashed that effort when she vetoed a group of those bills upon taking office in 2023.
The city of Mesa has more than $18 million listed as projected expenditures this year for the Mesa Arts Center, more than $5 million of which was reported for live performances. The city’s budget reported more than $9 million allocated to the arts center.
The city has also listed more than $8 million for operations, nearly $2 million for fund development, more than $1 million for adult and youth studio classes, nearly $900,000 for education and engagement, and more than $89,000 for volunteer recruitment and management.
The Fox Tucson Theatre in Tucson will also be hosting A Drag Queen Christmas performance this year.
The tour came through Arizona last year as well, hitting the Phoenix Theater in Phoenix and the University of Arizona main campus in Tucson.
Mesa is represented in the Arizona legislature by a supporter of drag shows.
State Rep. Lorena Austin (LD9), a Democrat representing Mesa, partnered with Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona to host a Drag Story hour in the Arizona Legislature’s basement in 2024.
House leadership accused Austin of misleading them when reserving the space for an event, and her actions resulted in Democrats temporarily losing access to House meeting rooms.
Austin rejected the accusation in a response published by Arizona House Democrats.
Austin would then go on that summer to host a drag show fundraiser open to all ages.
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by Corinne Murdock | Jun 18, 2022 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
As national attention focuses on children’s exposure to Pride Month festivities, Arizona’s Republican lawmakers pledged on Tuesday to craft legislation outlawing minor attendance at drag shows.
In a joint statement, the Senate Majority team condemned the sexualization and grooming of children through drag shows:
“One of the reasons why we were elected as lawmakers by our constituents was to protect family values. If men want to dress as women, and if adults want to participate in watching these hyper-sexualized performances, they have the freedom to do so. It crosses the line when kids are subjected to these drag shows. This ignorance by public and private sectors promoting this behavior sends a message of complete and utter perversion that can have detrimental impacts on the social and emotional development of our children. We will be damned if we won’t fight like hell to protect the most innocent from these horrifying and disturbing trends that are spreading across the nation now that extremist Democrats are currently in control of our federal government.”
The Senate Majority press release noted that they were working alongside several other, unnamed states to craft the legislation. The press release lamented that children were being exposed to sexual perversion.
Arizona has had its share of LGBTQ+-related pedophilia incidents. Just last month, a Tucson Magnet High School counselor who organized a drag show for high schoolers was arrested for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student. The Senate Majority team called out this incident, arguing that nondiscrimination policies were a slippery slope that had led to total disregard for morals and values.
“Policies of ‘nondiscrimination regarding gender expression and sexual orientation’ are sending a message to society that we should disregard morals and values just to normalize these unscientific, broad, ill-defined and subjective terms, which set a dangerous precedent for our children that are too young to be exposed to such concepts,” wrote the team.
Earlier this month, children were bore witness to the Heard Museum in Phoenix’s first-ever drag show. That incident was also acknowledged by the Senate Majority team.
“Performers were seen dressed in scantily clad attire while carrying out provocative dance moves that left little to the imagination as youngsters watched,” asserted the team.
In apparent response to the Senate Majority pledge to outlaw drag shows for minors, State Representative Andrés Cano (D-Tucson) suggested that the state legislature hold a drag show. He has not acknowledged the arrest of the high school counselor in his district.
State Representative Jennifer Longdon (D-Phoenix) claimed that gun shows were more harmful to children than drag shows.
“As others have said, gun shows are far more harmful for your kids than drag shows,” wrote Longdon. “Also, I LOVE drag queen story time!!!”
Research has linked early exposure to sexually explicit material with risky sexual behaviors, intimacy disorders, sexual violence and misconduct, and sexual deviancy. Most research on firearm exposure focuses on the effects and likelihood of gun violence, and not witnessing the legal use of a firearm.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | Jun 7, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
Last Friday, the Heard Museum in Phoenix hosted its first-ever drag show, “Pride Night at the Heard” — and children were present to witness it. BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona served as the major sponsor for the event, with Arizona Public Service (APS) as a regular sponsor.
The show featured Native American drag queens. Sam Toledo, the museum’s digital content manager, told the Phoenix New Times that the show was family-friendly.
The event host was a performer named “Pyraddiction.” The other performers were “Tomahawk Martini,” winner of Miss New Mexico Pride 2022; “Té D. DeMornay,” Mx Titos Pride 2022; “K.Yasss Savage”; “Ritavon DeMornay”; and “Felix.”
Negative commentary on the museum’s Facebook posts about their “Pride Night at the Heard” moved the administrators to delete and limit comments on their posts. Many criticisms concerned the disparity between LGBTQ+ ideologies and certain Native American cultures.
In addition to the drag show, the museum had LGBTQ+ Native American poets read their work.
The museum’s event took place a day before the viral drag show brunch in Dallas, Texas. That controversial event, “Drag The Kids to Pride,” was hosted in a 21-and-over bar.
Multiple recordings of the event depicted children giving dollar bills to the drag queen performers, and even performing alongside them. In the background of the stage there was a lit neon sign that read, “It’s Not Going to Lick Itself!”
“Drag The Kids to Pride” protesters were diverse. There were Christians urging repentance to God. There were also LGBTQ+ individuals insisting that children were too young for concepts like drag queens and transgenderism.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
