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The Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada had a drag show scheduled for Thursday before Defense Department officials said they would not fund drag events at federally funded facilities.
This week, Martin Cooper, who performs as drag queen Coco Montrese, was getting ready to return to the Pride Month drag show at Nevada’s Nellis Air Force Base.
Cooper, a former contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” had performed there in June 2021 for the first Pride drag show hosted at the base, wearing a rainbow dress adorned with feathers along one side. He missed the show in 2022, instead sending in a video saying he would see everyone next year.
But about 24 hours before the third annual show on Thursday, Cooper got word from the Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council, which organized the event, that it was canceled.
Department of Defense officials axed the show, saying it would not host drag events in federally funded facilities, a decision first reported by NBC News.
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement to The Washington Post that hosting drag events at United States military facilities “is inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of DoD resources.”
Cooper said the show’s cancellation sent a message — in particular to LGBTQ+ service members.
“Basically, they’re saying to them, you can be who you are, but you just can’t be that here,” he told The Post. “That’s how I take it.”
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Cooper said many people in the base’s community had looked forward to Thursday’s event after enjoying the previous years’ shows.
During Pride Month in 2021, he said, hundreds had gathered at the base’s club to watch the show.
Afterward, Cooper said he heard from spectators, even those who had never seen a drag performance before, that they enjoyed it.
“This was amazing,” one person told him.
“Drag is not what we thought drag was,” another said.
Though Thursday’s show had been approved months ago, it was canceled in a decision that Cooper said “felt like it was all political.” In a recent conservative push against drag events, Republican lawmakers in at least 14 states introduced bills to ban or restrict performances at the start of this year’s legislative session.
In late March, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) questioned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin about drag events at military bases during a House Armed Services Committee meeting.
He asked about taxpayer money being used for drag queen story hours, which Austin said the Defense Department does not fund.
Gaetz pressed further, citing a drag queen story hour at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, another at the Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia and one of Nellis Air Force Base’s previous shows as examples.
“I just showed you the evidence. Why are they happening?” Gaetz said.
“I will say again, this is not something that we support or fund,” Austin replied.
Last week, Gaetz sent a letter to Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley that included examples of drag shows and story times — events the representative said showed the Department of Defense’s “pervasive and persistent use of taxpayer dollars.” The drag show that was set for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base was included in Gaetz’s letter.
When Defense Department officials stopped the Nellis Air Force Base show, they said it would need to be canceled or relocated, according to NBC News. But as of Thursday evening, the show had not yet been rescheduled or relocated, Cooper said.
On Wednesday evening, Gaetz wrote on Twitter that the cancellation was a “HUGE VICTORY.”
In an unrelated statement about Pride Month on Thursday, Austin wrote that the service of LGBTQ+ members “adds to America’s strength.”
“As Secretary of Defense, I remain dedicated to making sure that our LGBTQ+ personnel across the Joint Force can continue to serve the country that we all love with dignity and pride — this month and every other one,” Austin’s statement said.
Despite the cancellation of Thursday’s show, Cooper hopes that the base will host a drag show again, whether it be later this month or again next year.
“I’m not discouraged by the message,” he said. “I just feel that means that we have to fight more to be visible and use this time wisely to actually educate people about who we are and what we do.”
Dan Lamothe contributed to this report.
