These Drag Artists Are Banding Together To Stop Anti-LGBTQ+ Violence

Tiara Latrice Kelley remembers the shock and confusion that rang through her body when she received a text from her friend the night of June 12, 2016.

“Did you make it to Pulse? If so, get out and run.”

Wednesday marked the eighth anniversary of a gunman opening fire and killing 49 people at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The massacre is the biggest act of gun violence against the LGBTQ+ community and the second deadliest shooting in the nation’s history.

Kelley, a drag artist and Black trans woman who had performed at and frequented Pulse for years, had planned to go to the nightclub that evening but ended up falling asleep early. She woke up to a barrage of sirens and dozens of frantic text messages. She and her friends walked a few blocks to the nightclub, where she saw people being carried out on stretchers with bullet holes in their limbs.

“I was in shock. This was the first time that our community as a whole, in a big way, had been under attack,” Kelley told HuffPost.

A few years later, in 2022, Kelley needed a change of pace and moved from Orlando to Colorado with her husband. She soon found herself producing shows at Club Q, a gay bar in Colorado Springs.

On Nov. 19 that year, Kelley was set to produce a show at the club but stayed home because she was feeling ill after a dialysis treatment. A little after midnight, her colleagues called her about an active shooter at the bar.

“I was having a flashback to June 12. It was just so surreal,” Kelley said. “What are the chances of this happening again? And what are the chances that I barely missed it?”

Five people were killed and at least 22 were injured in the Club Q shooting.

This spring, Kelley and nine other drag artists who have had