Dragstrip 66 in Los Angeles Magazine <3
My memoir on the 30th anniversary of a famed punk rock glitter drag club just posted in Los Angeles Magazine
Hot on the stilettos of my Viper Room memoir in Los Angeles Magazine comes my Los Angeles Magazine reflection on a famed Silver Lake drag club, Dragstrip 66.
I hope you read it, and I hope you share it with people who might be unaware that an artform is being weaponized to turn people away from loving inclusiveness in a democratic society and toward hatefulness — all so they vote for fascists to save them from the men in dresses.
Fascism comes for everyone. We need drag queens to save us from the fascists.
As Dragstrip 66 promoter Paul V says in the LA Mag article:
“Dragstrip 66 was truly a ‘you had to be there’ kind of phenomenon; a lightning in a bottle moment that was just the right idea with all the right people during the right era,’ said Paul V, a music industry veteran who managed Porno for Pyros. “It was a necessary lifeboat for an embattled LGBTQ community who were still dealing with so much loss, grief, and death because of HIV and AIDS; one of the only gay identified nightclub events that didn’t have a hierarchy of class, status or beauty; and in fact sought out and elevated the misfits and the freaks, and allowed everyone a safe, welcoming space to discover their sexual identities and authentic selves.”
So here we are in 2023 facing a new kind of “plague,” Paul said.
“A plague called MAGA, with monsters like Ron DeSantis and the rest of that vile ilk who are wholly targeting the LGBTQ community (again!), and especially the drag and trans community. And hurling lies calling us ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ because that’s what instills fear in closed minds, and what forces those closed minds to open their wallets and send them money,” he said. “Honey, this is the same shit, different decade; and this has been going on since fucking Anita Bryant in 1977.”
Although he says it’s a scary time because “these assholes are armed to the teeth and showing up to our Pride events and drag shows, it also means that our community needs to be louder, queerer, and more fearless than ever. And we don’t fight pathetic bullies by retreating.”
They fight with sequins and moxy — and that’s part of the magic and power of drag.
As Paul told me, he felt an obligation to reboot the club in 2023 to show solidarity to people in communities that might be less welcoming.
Please read the article here and share with friends in your network.
In addition, those with Byline Supplement memberships, please share my report from April, which explained how the attacks on the gay community are nationwide.
This is our moment to be allies.
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Save the dates: our next Bette Dangerous ‘Speakeasy’ Zoom for paid members is on Sunday, July 30, 4 pm PT featuring Ruth Ben-Ghiat, America’s top historian on Italian fascism and author of ‘Strongmen’. Also, our next Tuesday Happy Hour is on July 25, 5 pm PT. Registration links will be send a day or two in advance.
We just have to see that the battle for democracy is broader. It's deeper.—David Pepper
I need people to see they're on the frontline. Wherever you live, if you’re doing this work, you are the frontline.—David Pepper
The message should be a fair deal… fairness everywhere.—Martin Sheil
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“I say a silent prayer of thanksgiving as I walk upon the earth.”-Audrey Peterman.
“May the viral hope for truth and humanity wash away the chaos of these years.”-S.C., Bette community member
“Something Sacred never dies in almost all of us, who can hear the invitation of Truth…”-words from a Bette Dangerous community member
“Nothing but blue skies from now on…”-Irving Berlin
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