December 23, 2020 : Reflections 2020

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CONTENTS DECEMBER 23, 2020 VOL44 NO18

HEALING AURORA: HOW TO HELP A COMMUNITY IN SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL DISTRESS THE FIRST PRIDE WAS A PROTEST: DENVER’S PART IN THE LARGEST CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY BUILDING BRIDGES AND BREAKING THE GENDER BINARY: INDIGENOUS, TWO-SPIRIT IDENTITIES

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JUSTICE FOR ELIJAH MCCLAIN: THE STORY SO FAR CAN QUEER SPACES SURVIVE THE CORONAVIRUS? AN INDUSTRY, DISMANTLED. DENVER DRAG’S LONG AND STORIED HISTORY

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O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 5

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FROM THE EDITOR

I

t’s quite popular to say that 2020 has been a horrible year, and of course, in many ways, it has. The damage done by the Trump

administration and the death toll from COVID are nothing to sweep under the rug.

But, in many ways, it has also been a great year, a year of triumph and self-reflection. While small businesses and individuals have suffered the economic setbacks of the year so far, many small businesses and entertainers have also learned about the power of coming together for a common goal, causing us to rethink some of the more competitive aspects of society.

So now, as we finally close the book on this year, we need to realize that a lot of the problems we faced weren’t unique to 2020, and that we need to look back and learn from the amazing adaptations we made, the way humanity stood together in the face of one of the hardest years in our recent, collective memory.

So, with that in mind, here are some of the most powerful stories from this year. A few don’t have to do with COVID-19, but many touch on how our community came together to survive the pandemic.

Signing off for now, with plenty of excitement about what’s to come in 2021.

-Addison Herron-Wheeler

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 7

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O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 9

Healing Aurora

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

HOW TO HELP A COMMUNITY IN SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL DISTRESS

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

U

nless you’re living under a rock, you know Aurora has been in the headlines lately, and not for a good reason.

The tragic death of Elijah McClain passed its one-year

anniversary in August, and the community is still reeling, trying to figure out how to move forward with a police force making headlines for being murderers.

And, unless you’re seriously living under a rock, you know all about COVID-19 ripping through communities, destroying lives, medical resources, and the economy.

Of course, the entire country is dealing with social upheaval, reevaluation of police forces, and a major economic downturn.

But many communities, including Denver, have more resources to fall back on when things like this happen. Developing areas like Aurora don’t always have the means to make everything OK for their citizens, but based on what we learned about reform plans in the city, they are doing a damn good job of trying.

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FOOD AND ECONOMIC SUPPORT During a recession, some of the first major issues to pop up are local businesses going under and lack of food and resources for the poorest members of the community. Aurora is actively combatting those two things with their small business recovery plan and local food pantry program.

“Our small business recovery has come in the form of two separate grants programs,” explains Ward V Aurora City Council Member Alison Coombs. “One was business relief, so immediate cash for the businesses at the beginning of the pandemic. And then the recovery program, which is grants to businesses specifically for the purpose of helping them change their operations in light of the pandemic. It helps with cleaning and sanitizing, PPE, as well as updates to ventilation systems and increasing outdoor spaces.”

While this funding, combined with help on the federal level, is something the community is extremely grateful for, Coombs makes no bones about the fact that what is really needed is more federal help, something that is scarce during the Trump administration.

“I think businesses here are grateful for what we’ve done and the way that we've leveraged some of our federal dollars to support them, but I've heard a lot of concern about being able to survive the pandemic,” she says. “As a city, our resources only stretch so far, so we really do need federal support, particularly for smaller businesses that have ten or fewer employees that did not tend to get some federal funding. The federal programs haven’t done much to help them.”

And, in some cases, Aurora has to go beyond business funding to help the most in need. For those who have lost shelter or income, the city’s pantry program is essential to meet basic needs.

“We've heard from the community that food access has been an issue, so we have a weekly, mobile food pantry program,” Coombs adds. “We have a pick-up program, and then we’ve partnered with Stanley Marketplace to give out prepared meals.”

In an effort to address increasing need for food, the city is banding together to come up with creative solutions. Still, there is another serious issue that threatens the city: the discord between police and citizens.

“We are going to change how we respond to suspicious person calls,” Wilson says. “This will give the officers discretion to look at what’s really going on with a call instead of just responding to all calls for service. For years and years, we just sent officers out on all calls, and we need to change that because, obviously, we know there's implicit bias throughout the community and throughout the world.”

In the scenario Wilson is explaining, police in unmarked cars would simply drive by for suspicious person calls to see what’s going on. If they see a Black man walking in a hoodie or a group of Latinx teens walking and talking, they drive on. If they see a person trying door handles, accosting people on the street, or in any other way acting suspicious, they will call in backup to intervene.

Wilson also plans to back up the Colorado-wide bans on chokeholds and look into what, if any, drugs should be allowed to be carried by active-duty officers.

BUILDING A BETTER TOMORROW It’s not yet clear how many businesses will survive the pandemic or when things will go back to “normal,” nor if Wilson will keep her promises to the force and the city. However, one thing is certain; there is talk of action to further support Aurora.

“We have a pretty comprehensive recovery plan in terms of our own operations,” Coombs adds in reference to how Aurora can rebuild following the COVID financial impact. “We’re going to continue to roll out additional business support programs and offer any other economic relief that we can.”

“We're doing the pop-up food drives across different sections of the community where the officers help distributing food, some protein or a couple of cartons of milk depending on the size of their family,” Wilsonsays, regarding the officers’ efforts to win community trust. “If they have babies, we get diapers. We’re really trying to work with the community, to say we’re here for you. We want to have interactions that humanize the badge and the uniform, so they can see we actually really do care about this community and want to be a part of it.”

ADDRESSING LACK OF FAITH IN LAW ENFORCEMENT Aurora Chief of Police Vanessa Wilson has her dream job. She’s strived for the position within the force for a while now, but she couldn’t have taken on the job at a more difficult time.

“Right now, obviously, we have trust issues with the community,” she says. “My goal is to give the community a voice again and be able to talk about the issues they see, and also utilize the community and help move things forward, make the change that we work for the community. We work with people. And it's not an us-versus-them mentality; it's got to be a two-way communication.”

As an out lesbian on the force, Wilson wants to foster inclusivity both within the team and with the community. But, she understands that the trust from the community will be hard to win and is willing to speak directly on what is being done to ensure that more innocent lives, especially Black lives, aren’t taken. That starts with policing that isn’t based on stereotyping.

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 1 1

“I do everything I can to be a good ally, but at a certain point, just posting on social media and throwing money at a problem isn’t enough. Even right now, it’s such a privilege to be speaking with you like this because Black people are fearful of what will happen if they do show up and speak out” says 17-year- old protestor Sophia.

The First Pride was a Protest Denver’s Part in the Largest Civil Rights Movement in Human History

by Ray Manzari Photo by Veronica L. Holyfield

The Protesters My first day attending Denver’s Black Lives Matter protest was Sunday May 31, eight days after the death of George Floyd. The tension in the air was palpable, a small group of people gathered around the Denver Police Department to sling insults and demand answers. An armored vehicle with a dozen MPs hanging off the sides and back made its way up Broadway toward the statehouse. But, as I crossed the lawn and got into the sight line of Denver’s Civic Center, I was taken aback by the sheer size of the crowd. While there is no official report of how many people showed up over that weekend, the estimates are in the thousands.

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That fear was not unjustified; Denver Police Department used tear gas and pepper bullets to disperse crowds just minutes after the curfew over the weekend.

Meanwhile, (former) Denver Police Officer Thomas McClay posted a picture of himself and two other officers on Instagram, captioning it, “Let’s start a riot.”

As the week wore on, the tension slowly loosened. On Monday, Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen marched with protesters, and Monday evening, DPD (Denver Police Department) announced that they would not be enforcing the 9 p.m. curfew. By Friday, June 5, DPD had dissolved the curfew all together.

But, speakers continued to bring passionate and moving discussions to the table. One fired-up speaker suggests that police departments need to be flooded with Black, Brown, and transgender cops. She also serves the large crowd with a history lesson on the Tulsa, OK riots and the looting and pillaging of Native American land.

“When you talk to me about looting, when you talk to me about fires, when you talk to me about death, you better talk to me about Black Wall Street. Over 35 blocks were burned down, 21 banks, 6,000 homeless people after that incident; over 300 lives were massacred. Nobody wants to take accountability. Don’t talk to me about looting unless you want to talk to me about my ancestors.”

The Petitions For those who can’t attend protests, a large and ever-growing number of online petitions in support of Black Lives Matter are circulating.

1. HANDS UP ACT The Hands Up Act is a proposed piece of legislation that suggests officers receive a mandatory, 15-year prison sentence for the killing of unarmed men and women.

2. #WEAREDONEDYING The NAACP launched the petition in honor of George Floyd with the sole purpose of eliminating senseless hate crimes.

3. #DEFUNDTHEPOLICE Join the Black Lives Matter movement, which aims to defund law enforcement and redirect funds to invest in Black communities.

4. NATIONAL ACTION AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY Another petition directed toward law enforcement reform— but this time, it specifically encourages officials to hold the police accountable.

5. STAND WITH BREONNA This one’s dedicated to Breonna Taylor, who was murdered in her bed when police wrongfully entered her Kentucky apartment. You can sign the online petition, or text “ENOUGH” to 55156.

Though these petitions directly support the Black Lives Matter movement as well as police accountability, some protesters felt there were petitions circulating that took away from the larger purpose.

“When I arrived here today, there were people walking around with papers for us to sign to help pass legislation to prevent them raising taxes, which they will try to do, because of all the damage that’s been done. My point is this, I don’t care about that. How dare you come to this protest for that? I’m here because I’m tired of people who look like me being targets,” says Denise, another Denver protestor.

The Progress Several days of peaceful protests went on without a hitch, and Thursday, I returned to the statehouse to find the same organizers who had been running things all week, including Quincy “Q” Shannon, at the forefront. The anger and hurt that had been expressed over the weekend had turned to discussion of reform and policy. The word on everyone’s lips was “legislation.”

Earlier in the week, Colorado officials announced a bill to increase police accountability. It appoints the state attorney general as an independent investigator of all instances where law enforcement’s use of force results in death or serious bodily injury. The bill also removes the shield of immunity for prosecution from law enforcement found to have acted unlawfully, allowing peace officers to be sued in their individual capacity. The bill will additionally require all law enforcement to use body cameras and to collect and report data on the individuals that are stopped and searched.

Among speakers on Thursday was none other than Colorado School Board Member Tay Anderson, who earlier in the week had announced via Tweet that he would not be in attendance at Denver protests for a few days on account of trending Google searches involving his name and acts of violence. However, Anderson was there Thursday and told protesters of Denver Public School’s plan to enact change.

“These students are not only our future; they are our now. Tomorrow, [Friday, June 5] I will be bringing forth a resolution to kick Denver Police out of public schools. Our schools will no longer be ground zero for the school-to-prison pipeline. In the coming school years, we will make it so that every student has to take a Black history course; they will have to take an Indigenous studies course, and we will teach them about Latinx history in Denver Public Schools,” Anderson tells the crowd.

Children and the future were the main focus of Thursday’s protest, as organizers invited up anyone under the age of 18 to speak to the crowd.

“Black lives totally matter,” 8-year-old Mac proclaimed quite simply. “And that’s just a true statement.”

“Someone asked me earlier, why am I here? I’m here because I’m confused. I’m confused about what America has been doing the last hundred years,” a high school student tells protesters. “My great-grandma was a freedom rider; she marched with Martin Luther King, and there is no reason in Hell that we should be doing this in 2020. This is the year that this should end.”

“If my 70-pound self can stand toe-to-toe with an officer in full riot gear until tears roll down his cheeks, so can you.

The reason I’ve been up on this stage as much as I can is to tell all the white people who are sitting at home nervous to come out here, don’t be. The longer we stand side-by-side with this Black community, the louder their voices become,” says another young speaker. There have been protests in all 50 states as well as several other countries across the globe, making this group of civil rights protests the largest in human history.

Follow Black Lives 5280 for updates on how you can get involved.

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O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 1 3

BUILDING BRIDGES AND BREAKING THE GENDER BINARY INDIGENOUS, TWO-SPIRIT IDENTITIES

by Veronica L. Holyfield

I

t all begins with smudging. Before entering ceremony, the tradition of smudging in Indigenous and Native communities is a form of purifying or cleansing yourself with sacred herbs and preparing your heart for connection. David Maes, who lives here in Colorado, is an elder in the Native community, and with the guidance of medicine man, revered community member, and Caddo/Comanche elder Thompson Williams, based out of Oklahoma, is preparing for a Talking Circle.

The purpose of the Talking Circle on this evening is to provide a safe and comfortable space for four Indigenous, Two-Spirit individuals while honoring the spiritual format of group discussion. By exploring what this identity means to each individual, we will discover how incredibly unique and interestingly universal their experiences are.

Yet, before entering the virtual Talking Circle, each person takes a moment to cleanse away stressful energy, release any stored negativity, and set intention for this sacred space.

Traditions and ceremonies are the spiritual foundation within Native and Indigenous cultures; that is what creation stories, societal norms, and entire belief systems are based upon. While every community approaches the nature of ceremony in varying ways from their own spiritual leaders, the traditions honor space, time, and presence of being.

First and foremost, the expectation is that of respect. No crosstalk was permitted in this Talking Circle, and there was no scheduled end. Those in the circle tenderly share whatever they feel called to speak about in the moment, and every voice is upheld and valued. Being led by their hearts, their minds are free to wander through stories and experiences freely as they share stories and effortlessly relate back to the topic at hand. It is unrushed, graceful, unifying, and humbling.

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Myself and OUT FRONT Editor Addison Herron-Wheeler were invited into this particular Talking Circle as an extremely generous gift of education on the topic of Two-Spirit and LGBTQ identities within Native communities. Through video conferencing, the seven of us engaged in the cherished tradition as a way of honoring their voices and providing a platform for them all to represent their own truths.

Elder Williams begins the conversation by explaining to us his allyship with Two-Spirit society and how it began during his time here in Denver during Pride, when Williams was asked to perform a prayer.

“One of the things I wanted to make sure we did was to have a prayer for individuals in the society so that they knew they were always in my heart, and they are in the hearts of people in the community,” he explains.

Then leading us through a prayer for understanding and guidance through the conversation, this is a divine invitation to us outsiders who are taking space in their sanctified realm.

From initial smudging all the way through the final prayer, the entire experience was a blessing.

TWO SPIRIT Simply defined, Two Spirit is a modern, Indigenous identity in which a person embraces both masculine and feminine spirits and genders, a fluidity through navigating the spiritual realm and cultural roles as well as a queering of gender binary. The English term ‘nonbinary’ at best may serve as a resemblance of the Two-Spirit identity in Native cultures, and yet still is not close enough, as it is rooted in the colonialized concept of LGBTQ identities and less in the spiritual sense of life exploration.

Goldtooth works in construction, and while he considers himself to be masculine-presenting at work, he is often referred to as she/her by coworkers. Finding no fault through any misgendering, he in fact invites the fluid gender perception and willingly chooses not to correct people.

“I’ve always been taught that (gender is) in the eye of the beholder, and when you correct the person of who you are and how they see you, then you lose a bit of your medicine, or the identity that you’re trying to be. From there on, after you have corrected the projection of how they see; then from there on, you’re supposed to carry that identity at all times within that person’s sight,” Goldtooth explains.

Within the nonbinary and transgender communities, being misgendered is not only hurtful and offensive but can be traumatizing. For some Two-Spirit people, like Goldtooth, the terms used in their Native languages are much more vast and descriptive and live well outside the binary limits. Embracing the fluidity is where Goldtooth finds strength.

“You need to be aware that you are always an object to be criticized, but also you're also an object to be looked upon for directions. Even just the sight of you has so much meaning, has so much medicine, has so much empowerment,” Goldtooth says.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS As a medicine person, Williams is an admired healer and spiritual leader inside his community. In many Native and Indigenous groups, the medicine person is held with the utmost regard and respect, and so to have the blessing of the Two-Spirit Society and those within it from someone as revered as Williams, that carries power.

“In our community, we come from various, different tribes, various, different cultures, and various, different offerings of life,” explains Travis Goldtooth, who goes by the name Buffalo Barbie and has earned the title of Miss Montana Two-Spirit. “How you carry yourself and how you uphold yourself means a lot as a Two-Spirit person because you're a medicine to the community.”

“Never allow anybody to tell you you're wrong in who you are,” Williams says during the Talking Circle. “Always look at yourself and say, ‘I am this beautiful person.’ The creator created me, so that makes me important. Each person is gifted and brings certain gifts to the world, and we have to give them a chance to express those gifts.”

Goldtooth elaborates, “Your words have power; your words have strength; your words and actions can either build a bridge or tear it down.”

Alvin Chee describes that by virtue of being Two Spirit, he is able to better advocate for holistic healing practices through compassion and a greater, spiritual connectedness that drives his work. He talks of how his identity has led him to his career as an HIV medical case manager at The Grand Rapids Red Project in Michigan.

The way to describe the Two-Spiritness of spirituality, gender, or sexual identity is complex, intricate, and innately personal.

This identity is not a universal term for every Indigenous language, nor is it how every gender-variant Native person identifies. Just as varying as those who identify within the LGBTQ community, Two-Spirit people are incredibly diverse in how they relate to and differ from one another.

“It's kind of rare between the Navajos to use the word Two Spirit because that is actually a blanket term from the Ojibwe, but that is today's terminology for our LGBT community,” Travis explains. “As Navajos, we have eight gender identifications.”

In addition to how the terminology varies between different, Native and Indigenous peoples, how they embrace, understand, and express the umbrella of the Two-Spirit label differs. For Goldtooth, expression of Two-Spirit derives varying responses from people inside and outside of his traditional, Navajo community.

“I feel that, for me, being Two Spirit there's a responsibility to it,” Che emphasizes. “I kind of fell into that role, but it was such a wonderful, honorable role because my sacred deity is a Changing Woman. I’m already connected to this beautiful deity, and maybe I do have some sort of power to insert into the world, some sort of force that if I tried and dedicated time and energy to it, I could make some impactful change.”

As a way of providing context for us who are outsiders to the well-known, Two-Spirit story of his tribe, Chee tells us of a gender war that divided the women from the men by a river.

The story goes that whomever was to cross the river would be proven to be the greater sex, yet for years and years, no one crossed the river. The male and female genders used the river as a divide to stay apart with an understanding that, should one gender cave to the pressure of not receiving the support O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 1 5

of the other, then the gender that lasted the longest without caving was the greater sex.

A new responsibility of those Two-Spirit individuals had developed in order to meet the needs of their sides, so there was no reason for the genders to rejoin. As time went on, however, the Two-Spirit people understood that the tribe would not continue in this way of separation, and it was then the Two-Spirit people who brought these two genders back together.

the spirit. You're telling me that you've got these female and masculine energies, living and existing within you; that’s TwoSpiritedness.’ It was like a light bulb went off.”

Though each individual describes their personal connection to identifying as Two Spirit differently, a common thread begins to weave a connection through the cloth of their experiences: they are bridge-builders in their communities.

“I love the work that I do, and every job I’ve ever had has been one form or another advocating and helping people, those people who were underrepresented, forgotten, left out when policies were written,” he says.

“In my life, I've always been called the mediator, the mother in the group. The one always trying to heal relationships, the one that's always trying to find connections that nobody else sees,” she explains. “I see synapses in my brain just firing and connecting things that don't off the surface seem like they make sense, but spiritually, they do for me. And so, I try really hard to establish those connections.”

While Che has had familial conflict in the past due to his being gay, it is through the adversity that he finds his empowerment, his courage to advocate for others, and ultimately solidifies his belief in his own spiritual and physical gifts.

The shared emotion within the Two-Spirit community is one of deep empathy, a connectedness to compassion in which Diaz believes to be the route in which Two Spirit folks can build those necessary bridges.

“My dad, a medicine man, called me a Two-Spirit person, and he said it's needed in this world. It feels so good when someone says you're needed in the world, when the world doesn't seem like they want you there. It meant a lot to me; it kind of shaped the way I viewed the world after that,” Che reveals.

SPECIALNESS

In a lot of ways, Che found his own Two-Spirit identity in that story, as he has become more developed in his career.

INTERSECTIONS “I realized pretty early on that somewhere inside of me spiritually, there was some nonbinary-ness,” explains Tezcatli Diaz. “I'm very, very femme-forward; I claim my femininity and my womanhood with pride and dignity, but at the same time, how I present on the outside isn't in full alignment with how I feel inside.”

For Diaz, who works for the youth leadership development organization Project VOYCE, her identities lie along a complex, intersectional spectrum. Identifying as a queer, Afro-Latina, Indigenous woman, and also being Mexica, a culture that does not include Two-Spiritness, as well as being raised with Lakota ideals, she says it is those intersections that inform how she moves through her work, through her parenting, and how she navigates the world.

Unlike Che, her Two-Spirit and bisexual identities were not ones that she struggled to accept about herself and express to her friends and family members.

“I was probably a teenager when I realized that I didn't just like boys, and that I liked girls too, and it didn't feel like a secret to me. I didn't feel like there was a coming out that needed to happen for me,” Diaz tells the group. “There was some deep guilt after being raised in a world where queer youth are so closeted. Growing up with stories of Matthew Shepard on the news, I just didn't understand how hard it was for folks to navigate identity and sexuality the way I understood it from the Lakota community.”

Yet, Diaz says she fumbled around for a long time, not knowing how to show up in queer spaces or spiritual spaces, until she had a conversation with her deceased mother’s good friend around the time of Standing Rock.

“She’s like, ‘It doesn't matter what's between your legs; it doesn't matter what is your sexual preference; it's about what's in 1 6 \\ D E C E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 2 0

“I remember when I was a child, my mom would tell me that since the first time she held me in her arms, I was special.

She would repeat that as I was growing up, and I never knew what that meant,” Maes says, with reminiscence in his voice as he speaks into the small camera atop his laptop.

The Talking Circle is now entering its third hour of sharing, and the intimacy; openness, and vulnerability of the group is no less powerful than it was at the smudging. The sacred stories that flow so freely from the lips of these beautiful, Two-Spirit souls transcend any barriers due to virtual communication and social distancing.

“I never felt like I was in any box or in any group; I always felt like I was outside of everything,” Maes continues. “I always knew I was different, and I always felt rejected. When I heard about Two Spirit, it all came together; my whole life came together.”

Feeling like he is neither spiritually male nor female, he describes himself as having more masculine energy than feminine energy, and the opportunity to have another option that incorporates more of his spiritual gender provides Maes with something that feels intrinsically authentic.

“It represents my sacred center, that center of my true self, my higher self. The essence of who I am, where I'm one with creator,” he says with a sure delivery of internal peace.

Admitting that identifying as queer, or anything that falls under the LGBTQ umbrella, doesn’t feel truly accurate to his experience, Two Spirit envelopes something much larger than sexual attraction or gender expression. It is down to the core and essence of who he is.

Bridge-builders, the connecting force between mediating not only the world of gender understanding but also being a conduit between Mother Nature, Father Sky, and all the creatures and spiritualities that roam the in-betweens, is as close to a “definition” of Two-Spirit as we are likely to get, and we are honored to have gotten it.

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At Highlands Behavioral Health, we are committed to creating and preserving a culture and environment of respect and inclusion. Constellation is the manifestation of our vision of inclusive care.

It is a queer-inclusive program designed to meet people where they are and deliver care that is tailored to who they are.

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O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 1 7

JUSTICE FOR The story so far ELIJAH MCCLAIN T

he summer of 2020 has been one for the books, engulfed in record-high temperatures and equally heated conversations around the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, political strife, and the election, riding the wave of continued nationwide, protests against police brutality and a resurgence in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Making a dent in the month of August, we steadily approached the one-year anniversary of Elijah McClain’s death, which happened right here in Colorado.

Elijah was a 23-year-old, unarmed, Black man who was apprehended by Aurora police August 24, 2019 after a passerby noticed him wearing a mask (which he wore outside due to his anemia and to help him stay warm), flailing his arms, and listening to music. On the 911 call, the caller indicated he didn’t appear dangerous. When officers stopped him, Elijah told them, “I have a right to go where I am going.”

An officer touched him; Elijah told him that he was going home and urged the officer to respect his boundaries. A struggle ensued, with Elijah thrown to the ground, an officer applying a “carotid control hold” around Elijah’s neck as he urged them to stop and that he was unarmed. To sedate him, medics injected Elijah with ketamine, too much for his body size.

He suffered two heart attacks on the way to the hospital and was pronounced brain dead three days later. Elijah McClain died August 30 after being removed from life support, and none of the officers or medics at the scene have been charged.

It wasn’t until November that police body camera footage was released, though it is difficult to indicate what protocol was followed by officers, as their body cameras all allegedly fell off during the arrest. An officer can be heard in the footage stating Elijah had done nothing illegal prior to the arrest, and Elijah repeatedly asks officers to stop, pleads that his house is nearby, that he has an ID and is unarmed. This is before he vomits, apologizes to the officers, and tells them he cannot breathe correctly. A camera is briefly picked up and pointed at Elijah, then dropped into the grass once more. Around the 15:34-mark, a police officer can be heard saying, “Leave your camera there” as another officer goes to retrieve it.

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by Keegan Williams

The autopsy report was released the same month, which notes a combination of factors could have killed Elijah, that he had chronic asthma, and that his physical exertion likely contributed to his death, though indicated it was “unclear if the officers’ actions contributed as well.”

Following the release of the autopsy report, Mari Newman, the lawyer representing the McClain family, rebutes, “Whatever the report says, it’s clear that if the police had not attacked Elijah McClain, he would be alive today. They immediately went hands-on and tackled him. And, of course, the fact that all three of their body cameras fell off is something that we should all be pretty suspicious about. It makes it awfully easy for them to say whatever they want, but what we know is that they attacked him for no reason whatsoever.”

Details around Elijah’s case caught nationwide attention this past June following the death of George Floyd, another unarmed, Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May. Following weeks of Black Lives Matter and police brutality protests in Denver and worldwide, Colorado had the momentum to pass the Law Enforcement Accountability and Integrity Act, which Rep. Leslie Herod had started working on in late-2019 after Elijah’s death. Among other police reform measures, the bill makes it a duty for officers to intervene if another sworn employee is inappropriately applying force, explicitly outlaws the carotid hold that was used against Elijah, creates a public database to prevent the rehiring of bad officers, and removes qualified immunity for prosecution of law enforcement found to have acted unlawfully.

“Many people are saying they’re going to quit because it’s too much, which I’m fine with, because they’re obviously bad officers,” Herod says. “What we can’t do is bring their babies back.”

Herod continues, “I could write a law tomorrow saying wearing green pants is illegal, but if you wore green pants on Tuesday, I can’t throw you in jail for that, you know? You didn’t actually break the law when you were doing it. Now, I don’t contend that these officers haven’t broken the law, but what I do know is that we’re operating under pre-217 [Law Enforcement Accountability and Integrity Act] language, which gives the officers a lot more flexibility and ability to murder, and I think that needs to be

said. Colorado has one of the highest numbers of excessive use-of-force cases in the country. Our laws are way too weak, and it’s time to change that.”

Fresh off the heels of the Law Enforcement Accountability and Integrity Act’s passing, police in Colorado made headlines in early July for a different reason: three Aurora police officers were fired after photos resurfaced from October 2019 depicting officers at Elijah McClain’s memorial playfully recreating a chokehold. One of the three officers was fired for his response to the photo being shared, and a fourth officer resigned before punishment could be handed down.

"While the allegations of this internal affairs case are not criminal, it is a crime against humanity and decency. To even think about doing such a thing is beyond comprehension. It shows a lack of morals, values, integrity, and judgment. I can no longer trust to allow them to wear this badge,” APD Chief Vanessa Wilson says at a July 3 news conference.

The McClain family called it a ‘new low’ and issued a statement after the photos came to light. “This is a department where officers tackled an innocent, young, Black man for no reason, inflicted outrageous force—including two carotid chokeholds— for 15 minutes as he pled for his life, joked when he vomited, and threatened to sic a dog on him for not lying still enough as he was dying.”

On July 22, it was first reported that Rosenblatt filed a lawsuit against the City of Aurora and Chief Wilson, claiming that he was wrongfully denied his request to take his firing to the city’s Independent Review Board. On the July 3 conference, Wilson said it was within her right to deny the review board request and terminate the officers.

This wasn’t the only time eyes were fixed steadily on Aurora Police and their response to the public outrage around Elijah’s death. A now-viral video depicts the familiar, cell-phonerecorded scene of peaceful protestors interrupted by a heavy, militarized police presence, namely a violin vigil (honoring Elijah as a violinist) on June 27 with a quick pan over to Aurora police entering, armed and marching, toward the crowd which begins to disperse as they descend into the park.

APD Chief Wilson defended the tactics of the officers, some of whom resorted to using pepper spray and batons on protestors subject to a dispersal order adjacent to Aurora police headquarters. She says that police were targeting this small group of agitators when the officers cracked down on the protest, and the intent was to protect those attending the violin vigil.

“We were attacked with rocks, and we had to defend our officers.

My officers aren’t sacrificial lambs,” Wilson says during the following virtual city council meeting. She also says they were concerned that protestors would attempt to break into police headquarters to destroy case evidence.

Photo by Justine Johnson

One of the three officers fired over the photos was Jason Rosenblatt, also one of the officers who restrained McClain before he died. He received the pictures and replied “ha ha,” according

to Wilson. He wasn’t terminated for his role in McClain’s death but on July 3, after the pictures were investigated.

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 1 9

Aurora Councilman Juan Marcano was at the violin vigil and said, “I don’t think any of us felt unsafe until the riot police showed up.”

On July 23, Aurora community leaders and protestors from the June 27 demonstration filed a class-action lawsuit against APD and its interim chief, saying their response the demonstration was unconstitutional.

Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly had agreed upon an independent investigation of Elijah’s death, though the contract was ultimately terminated, as the investigator had a long career in law enforcement, and Aurora City Council deemed the investigation would be inherently biased.

Working on a state level with a local case, Gov. Jared Polis has limited ability to assist directly, though he announced in early June he was appointing Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate the case and file charges, should his investigation support prosecution.

“All Coloradans should be safe walking home from the convenience store or just being in their own neighborhoods listening to headphones. Unfortunately, I know that is not how many people—especially young people of color—feel in our state today because I’ve heard it from them directly.

We need to do a better job, and at a bare minimum, they deserve a thorough review of the case,” Polis says in a statement.

On July 20, Aurora City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for a three-member team with expertise in law enforcement accountability, civil rights, EMT procedures, and use-of-force to carry forward an independent, unbiased investigation.

The investigation will be led by Jonathan Smith of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Washington D.C., a nonprofit law firm that addresses racial and economic inequality within criminal justice. It is a complementary investigation alongside Weiser’s investigation prompted by Polis, focusing more on policy and procedure over criminality.

At time of publication, the other members of the team have not yet been decided on, though Aurora Communications Director Kim Stuart said the investigation will commence “relatively quickly” and will give the city a clear path on next steps to take on the case upon completion.

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Of course, recognizing progress is important, but as we inch into August, we approach a full year since his death without justice for Elijah McClain, and see still the tireless fighting around the country for so many other Black lives cut short at the hands of police with little or no accountability and actionable, systemic change.

Take a drive down Broadway, squint a bit, and you’ll see the barely visible “Black Lives Matter” message painted across the pavement a couple months back. Denver joined dozens of American cities in donning murals that pay tribute to Black lives lost, some cities even changing street names to “Black Lives Matter,” though these acts leave many questioning what our leadership can do that’s actionable in this country for progress beyond these gestures that don’t enforce long-term change against systemic racism and police violence.

The work must continue, though it doesn’t come without its trials.

On July 25, a peaceful demonstration to demand justice for Elijah McClain gradually moved to I-225, blocking off both directions, and the evening took a stark turn, as a blue-green Jeep plowed through the crowd around 7 p.m. Video of the incident shoes protestors quickly bolting to either side of the street to avoid being hit. Shots were fired by a protestor that injured two others, and a third protestor had to jump from a barrier to avoid being hit, sustaining injuries and falling at least 20 feet.

The Jeep was taken into police custody, and APD is in contact with the driver and passenger.

There is an ongoing investigation, though no arrests have been made.

The three organizers of the event, the Party for Socialism and Liberation - Denver, Frontline Party for Revolutionary Action, and Aurora Copwatch, released a statement the next day, criticizing Aurora police for their treatment of the driver and passenger of the Jeep versus that of Elijah.

“We will continue to stand against the racist and violent Aurora Police Department which harasses and murders Black people with impunity, attacks protestors at will, and aids and abets white supremacist vigilantes that would like to kill those who protest their department. This fight is also a matter of life and death for our community.”

It’s been quite the summer, and clearly, the fight is only just beginning. As Coloradans, there is a special pain in our proximity to Elijah and communities directly affected by his death. The country treads forward, foundationally built on systemic racism, genocide, and slavery that brings us to the year 2020, afflicted

by political turmoil during an election year, battling at once COVID-19 and the additional, ongoing pandemic killing so many Black Americans.

Sometimes, the weight of our collective reality feels too heavy to bear, but as we buck up and continue the trek forward, how can we hone in our focus in the fight for Elijah and so many others?

“I think the best thing to do is focus people’s efforts on who can make a difference. There’s not much the governor can do right now, not much I can do but use my voice too, but there’s a lot that the city council, the city attorney, and the mayor can do, and I think that’s where we really need to focus things—and the DA,” Herod says.

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While sharing on social media and keeping these conversations going is important, Herod adamantly says it’s important to keep using our voices and holding those in power accountable, but doing it in a strategic and intentional way that matches which leaders have pull in which places.

“If we put pressure on the Mayor of Aurora, the DA, and the folks at city council, we can actually do justice by this family, but we can also use this as momentum to make sure that we’re doing justice by a lot of the families that have been impacted—it’s not just the one.”

Bare your beauty™

The McClain family has several demands to attain Justice for Elijah: • A truly independent investigation of his death which pertains to the Aurora city manager, mayor, city attorney, and city council

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• A criminal prosecution of the officers and paramedics involved which pertains to the Adams County District Attorney Dave Young • Firing the officers involved in Elijah’s death which pertains to the Aurora chief of police • Change in police practices and a civil remedy in the form of no less than a $35 million settlement, which Elijah’s mother, Sheneen, plans to use to start the McClain Foundation

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“Democrat, Republican, doesn’t matter. We are not prosecuting these bad officers, and people need to start talking about how important the DA race is. Like, those are the kind of things that we need to be doing right now, and any platform that we have, we need to really have a longer conversation about what’s going on—that’s what we need to do,” Herod adds.

To donate to the Elijah McClain Foundation through the GoFundMe started by Elijah’s mother Sheneen McClain: gofundme.com/f/elijah-mcclain To sign the petition to demand Justice for Elijah McClain: change.org/p/adams-county-district-attorney-justice-forelijah-mcclain-48a81830-f891-4b04-ba28-c2625b916b96 For more resources, visit the Justice for Elijah McClain LinkTree: linktr.ee/justiceforelijahmcclain This is an ongoing story. Keep with OUT FRONT for more updates.

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O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 2 1

Words and photos by Veronica L. Holyfield

CAN QUEER SPACES SURVIVE

THE CORONAVIRUS? An Industry, Dismantled Words and photo by Veronica L. Holyfield Words like social distancing and self-quarantine are now in the normal lexicon of our society due to the spread of COVID-19, or coronavirus. We sat back and watched the rest of the world isolate, and then it was no longer a suggestion in Denver; it was required.

W

ith the sudden break from the cold in early March, Denver queer spaces were alive and thriving. Typically, that time of year can be a slower time for bars and restaurants, as folks are still hunkered down for the winter, saving up that cashflow for the upcoming, long summer nights.

The spring-forward time change that occurred March 8 with the nearly-70-degree afternoons had people pouring out of their front doors with sandals and tank tops, gathering by the hundreds in the gayborhoods Cheesman and Washington Parks, as well as the new, hipster haven Sloan’s Lake.

Patios were full of people and pets for brunch; bookstores and antique shops were busy with perusers and window shoppers, and it felt as though the city of Denver was coming alive, emerging from hibernation. That is, until March 17 when everything changed.

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Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, under the guidance of Colorado Governor Jared Polis, mandated that gatherings of 10 or more people be restricted, and bars and restaurants would be required to close for eight weeks. An entire industry which employed thousands of Denver residents was shut down in the blink of an eye.

“It's a shock to everybody,” says Jody Bouffard, co-owner and founder of the lesbian bar Blush & Blu. “I've been in the industry for 24 years; I have never seen anything like this. And having been a business owner for the last almost 15, this is a huge, huge hit for the bar, my staff, myself.”

Eight weeks is a long time for any business to survive without a steady stream of income, much less queer spaces, which are becoming fewer and further between in the gentrified city. The

pandemic of coronavirus, however, is unlike the slow and steady wave of change which the Mile High City has grown accustomed to; the announcement forced immediate closure in less than 24 hours. This meant any means of income to support the business costs and the staff wages was cut off.

“Well the landlord, because I've been there for 14-plus years, is completely understanding of the situation and is going to work with us, so I'm grateful for that,” Bouffard explains. “I'm not in jeopardy of losing my lease or the space. It’s gonna be a matter of when this is all over, the community coming back out and helping keep the space open at that point.”

Queer bars have struggled for a while now, and many spots have come and gone in Denver alone in the last few years. However, the need for them is as dire as ever, seeing as they are designated safe zones for LGBTQ folks to gather in community, and the service industry has long been a workforce that keeps queer folks employed.

Families form inside the walls of these bars, as much behind the counter as they do at open-mic poetry nights and on the dance floors; they have been the only place where we could safely be ourselves.

Yet, with the bar and nightclub closures and the mandated, shelterin-place orders, the families were separated, and we are all simply waiting to see what happens.

Bouffard describs her feelings as sad and scared, seeing as this unprecedented, societal shift is unlike any other time in history, and countless service industry folks are now without jobs indefinitely.

“I can't even try to predict what's going to happen with people being out of work for eight weeks,” Bouffard says. “I have staff I’ve worked with there for 10 years; Hannah’s been with me for 10 years; Jess has been with me for five; Jordan’s been with me for seven or eight years. These aren't short-term staff; they're like family; they become family.”

Seeing the writing on the wall at least a week prior, Bouffard said that sales had already declined as the community was urged to remain in spaces with less than 50 people. Groups who had booked space in the event room of Blush & Blu were cancelling left and right, and it felt that the time to temporarily lock the doors was upon them.

Trying to remain optimistic, Bouffard encourages folks to look back through our history and rest assured we have been through things like this and worse, and we will come out stronger than ever.

“At the end of the day, we've gotten through worse; in the AIDS epidemic in the 80s, the village came together. People supported and helped one another even if it was under such a pandemic, and in a sense, we're going through another pandemic right now in 2020. We just all need to be supportive of each other in any way that we can,” Bouffard emphasizes.

As a way to try as best she can to still support her Blush & Blu family, the bar has set up a GoFundMe page where family, friends, and bar regulars can donate to helping their favorite cocktail slingers maintain stable housing and food acquisition during this unprecedented time.

Alex Johnson, a rather new bartender at Blush & Blu, was only able to work a handful of shifts before the space was forced to close. A skilled bartender by trade, Johnson explains that it is more than simply being out of work for an extended period of time, as the bar is the environment in which she thrives.

“It's hard; my life has been bartending. That's how I meet my friends; that's how I meet my family; that's how I have my confidence,” she explains. “I love my job, and I completely immerse myself into it. I mean, I wake up every day thinking, ‘I have to get ready for work,’ and then I realize, I have nowhere to go to.”

She had to become savvy to continue paying her bills, so Johnson developed a virtual bartending show through Facebook live stream, where folks can follow her making beverages, interact with questions, and pay tips through Venmo, just as they would tip when buying a drink from her at the bar. This has given her a project to focus on now that there is an abundance of isolated, free time.

Many folks like Johnson have developed creative ways to interact with their community while trying to source a stream of income.

Evelyn Evermoore, a full-time, Denver-based drag performer and costume designer, found a similar way to continue to strengthen community while making some money during this time.

Evermoore has created several Facebook live shows, including Quiplash, a free, weekly, online game show, and Bedroom Drag, which will feature not only themselves but also more drag performers and other industry folks, like bartenders.

“I think it's important to recognize that as entertainers, we're privileged enough to have something that we can sell online and transition our businesses that direction,” they say. “Bartenders, servers, and other people who work in the career service industry are just kind of out of luck.”

As one of the lucky few who have been able to make a living wage doing drag full-time up to this point, Evermoore immediately felt the weight of the blow from the closed spaces, but chooses to focus on creating opportunities for others while delivering entertainment to their community. Yet, with so much uncertainty in these early stages of the pandemic, nothing feels safe.

“I'm just trying to take it day-by-day. This whole situation is so fluid; we don't know what's going to happen in the next hour, let alone the next week, so I'm trying to focus my attention on the hour-by-hour situation. If I think too much about what's going to happen to the drag scene once this quarantine is over, it's just a panic attack,” Evermoore says.

As of March 25, there were 1,086 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Colorado, with 147 being hospitalized and 20 deaths as a result. The mayor of Denver announced a mandated, shelterin-place ordinance, meaning no one may leave their homes for anything other than necessary item retrieval, and all non-essential businesses must close.

In an effort to “flatten the curve,” keeping people quarantined is a Hail Mary practice to try and lessen the rapid-fire spread of the virus and an avoidance tactic to not overwhelm healthcare facilities. Yet, when all is said and done, many wonder if these queer

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 2 3

spaces will be able to open back up again and what the long-term impact on the LGBTQ community will actually be.

Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, the apps which were once considered toxic to human socialization, are now the only things that are keeping people safe and connected.

“It's so strange to feel so isolated and so connected at the same time,” Evermoore explains. “We're in this state of crisis, but the crisis is just staying at home, so it feels both over-reactive and underwhelming at the same time, which is a very conflicting set of emotions to have going on.”

Knowing that LGBTQ folks are at a disproportionately higher risk of mental health issues and substance abuse disorders, the long periods of isolation during the shelter-in-place quarantine mandated by the city of Denver put a lot of our community at risk. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults are more than twice as likely as our heterosexual counterparts to experience a mental health condition, and 48 percent of transgender adults report they have considered suicide in the past 12 months.

“I have a day job, so drag performing is not my full-time gig, but I immediately was thinking about everyone in the service industry where that's their main means for income,” explains drag performer Zarah, who regularly performed at Mile High Hamburger Mary’s. “That was my biggest worry. What are we going to do to keep them afloat? They still are going to have expenses, even if it's not like paying rent.”

In response to the full-time drag queens and bartenders whose income has been halted, Denver drag performers Simon Paul and Onyx Steele assembled and circulated an Excel spreadsheet of Venmo handles for folks to donate to, if able. Through things like individual contributions via Venmo, to businesses starting GoFundMe pages, all the way through bars promoting the purchasing of gift cards to be redeemed once the doors re-open, many are hoping that things can return back to normal.

Zarah is one of the lucky ones whose day job has yet to be impacted by the closures; however, for folks like veteran drag queen Felony Misdemeanor, times are extra hard right now.

Not only are the queer spaces that Misdemeanor is used to performing in closed, it is with very unfortunate timing that her day job at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains HIV testing facility and community center The Drop closed its doors on March 13 due to a major cut in funding. She hoped to turn to drag full time, but now that isn't an option.

“I was looking forward to drag full time in April; I had quite a few bookings already in place,” Misdemeanor explains. “Those were immediately canceled. I'm not going to have any form of income coming in at all for the next eight weeks, at least.”

Misdemeanor, who has built a name for herself in the drag community after hustling and grinding for years, is now taking a similar approach to fundraising for survival through the online drag show Cellblock: Solitary Confinement. If that isn’t enough, she’ll be faced with the tough reality that filing and collecting unemployment may be her only option right now.

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“I'm just here at home trying to get my head together. I really have no clue what to do,” she says.

As a frequent performer at the LGBTQ-focused nightclub X Bar, many of her fellow entertainers, drag family members, and bar employees are in a similar situation, not quite sure what to do and how long they can wait for a paycheck.

“I'm thinking it's like a bad dream, and I’m waiting on someone to actually pinch me so I can jump up. I just don't want to face reality, but I know the times we are living in,” says Destiny X Bar, a door host and security guard at X Bar. “It’s definitely traumatizing at this moment.”

In fact, traumatizing is a perfect way to describe the current situation, not only in Denver, but around the world.

While the idea of closing down bars, restaurants, clubs, and spaces that host large gatherings of people is well-intended as a measure to help lessen the spread of coronavirus, the impact on income and morale hit hard.

“When you’re used to doing something, for it to be taken away from you within a blink of an eye, it definitely hits home,” Destiny explains. “X Bar was not only a place that I worked at, but I also enjoyed communicating and talking with the patrons that entered our establishment that were looking for us to have a good time.

So, I miss all of that.”

Many have been finding it difficult to keep entertained without being able to go out to places like X Bar and Blush & Blu. This is why the virtual offerings like Johnson’s live streaming for bartending tips and Evermoore’s Bedroom Drag are so important; they not only act as income avenues, they also provide the community with the much needed camaraderie.

Drag king and fitness instructor Trey Suits knows how to serve the community while staying positive during these times of fear and uncertainty. He has started a YouTube fitness channel focusing on movement and self-care so people can have an outlet to stay healthy when cooped up indoors.

Typically teaching a dance class titled Dance Jam, the community that gathers to move their bodies ranges anywhere between 60 and 90 people. With a motto of “There’s no right or wrong; there’s no judgment; just do the best you can with the body that brought you in here,” Suits knew that in the age of social distancing, folks were going to need a way to move together now more than ever.

“Yeah, this sucks, but there's an ‘and.’ There's everything in between all of this. We can hoard food and make it awful for ourselves, and I'm not discounting those anxieties are real, but how do we alleviate some of the challenges, and I think exercise is one of [the ways we can] for sure,” Suits says.

The hour-long class that Suits teaches through YouTube is a way for people to get out of their heads, out of fear and into their bodies. In addition to dance, he recommends everyone incorporate other forms of exercise like strength training and low-impact bodyweight training.

“We have to find a light in the dark,” Suits says. “Otherwise, it can be overwhelming. This is going to inevitably change the way all of us live, forever.”

For Chris Newell, owner of queer bars Trade and Gladys: The Nosey Neighbor, the dark times are upon us, and change is not on the horizon but has been thrust upon us and with very little direction or support, until it may have been too late.

“I've been really kind of upset that the response isn’t more coordinated,” Newell says. From federal to state to city level, the information has rapidly changed. From a variety of time frames spanning two to eight weeks, each level has mandated a different length of the social distancing and self-quarantining window. Newell’s business could survive a two-week closure with little long-term impact; however, eight weeks will cause a significant strain.

“I don't fully understand where that number is coming from, and personally, I feel like that was a political move so that the mayor could seem like he's doing something,” Newell says.

He went on, “We want to help keep the community at large stay healthy and safe, but I guess I just personally feel like the Denver mayor didn't really take a lot into account, at least that I'm aware of.”

Without time to create an infrastructural buffer, the amount of unemployment claims being submitted crashed the Colorado unemployment website, and there are not nearly enough people working in those departments to process the claims. While this has created a need in the workforce, and community members are applying for those positions left and right, there will be an inevitable lag in processing and payment.

While assistance programs continue to spring up every day, and the governor and mayor are urging landlords and property management companies to defer eviction, the foundation on which the entire plan unfolded was less than shakey, at best.

Local government websites have created master lists of the available resources, and Facebook groups like The OUTsiders are attempting to fulfill the needs of the community, but it is still too soon to tell what people are going to need and how quickly they will need it.

Newell, like Bouffard, likens this pandemic to that of the HIV/ AIDS crisis, and while the impact is on more than the queer community, it is those within the queer community who consistently show up and support one another, no matter what.

“It is reassuring to see the community come together, and I think the biggest echo is that we are used to the idea that, as a community, we have to take care of each other because maybe society at large isn't going to do that for us,” Newell says.

While grocery stores may be depleted, and finding a roll of toilet paper listed for sale on the internet for $90 is no longer considered absurd, it is the strength and ingenuity of the LGBTQ community that will perservere, endure, and remain intact through this all. Can queer spaces, the folks who work in them, and the LGBTQ community at large, survive coronavirus? Only time will tell. One thing is certain, though; things will never be the same.

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 2 5

Denver Drag’s

Long and Storied History

by David Duffield, History Coordinator, The Colorado LGBTQ History Project, The Center on Colfax Photos and images provided by David Duffield

D

rag is about people. In Denver’s case, drag appeared almost as early as when the city was founded in 1859. During the Civil War and Gilded Age (1861-1877) there were few people in the Western U.S., and the ratio of men to women was nearly seven-to-one until 1900.

cases note Southern “negro minstrels” who had female impersonators in their all-male troops. Drag certainly had a presence on Denver stages and a regional presence in Colorado, and it wasn’t even an all-white presence, despite the problematic nature of some entertainers.

Susan K. Johnson noted in her book Roaring Camp that miners in the California gold rush would crossdress for fun, and same-gender relationships among them were common. This was also the case in Colorado, and female impersonation was used as a form of entertainment. In one case, Soapy Smith, a famous swindler and leader in early Denver, entertained at the “Great St. Leon” at the Palace Theater during the 1880s. Unfortunately, at the time, female impersonation was often paired with performative blackface.

As the 19th century ended, anticrossdressing, or “masquerade laws,” emerged across the U.S. which regulated gender presentation in public. Crossdressers themselves, according to historian Peter Boag in Redressing America’s Frontier Past, were viewed more as criminals than citizens.

Still other cases note “male impersonators” in burlesque shows.

According to Lisa Duggan in Sapphic Slashers, Annie Hindle, a popular, late19th-century, male impersonator, came through Denver around 1870. Hindle later married her partner, Annie Ryan, in 1886 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

In 1891, when Joe Gilligan was reportedly busted for passing bad checks, newspapers reported police finding dresses in his closet. They also found correspondence between another female impersonator friend in Pueblo who committed suicide. Other

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Still, female impersonation thrived in Chicago and New York at circuits like Vaudeville as part of the so-called Pansy Craze for queer theater. Julianå Eltinge was one of the most popular female impersonators during the early 20th century. Between 1905 and 1926, Eltinge played theaters like the Orpheum and Empress along Denver’s “Electric Mile” near 16th and Curtis.

During WWII, female impersonators performed at Buckley Airforce Base, while bars like Mary’s Tavern were blacklisted for being queer spaces. During the 1950s, there was a crackdown on vice nationwide, and anti-cross-dressing laws were updated. In an effort to target men who crossdressed, drag was effectively outlawed in Denver in 1954.

In the late 1950s, the longest-lasting drag troupe in history, the Jewel Box Revue, came through town on several extended stays. Stormie De Levarie was a member of the Revue as well as a notable drag king who is remembered for inciting the Stonewall Riots. Drag, just like all queer life in Denver, was effectively closeted in the 1960s, yet seeds of resistance abounded.

In the early 1960s, a drag troupe called The Turnabout Review did Christmas shows in Evergreen led by local performers including Dick Reece. Eventually, they worked out a deal to establish a bar near 13th and Lawrence in the Auraria neighborhood. Called the Gilded Cage, the bar was decimated a few years later in the flood of 1965 followed by urban renewal.

Many of the members of this troupe later went on to form their own crossdresser groups and Tri Ess Sorority in the 1970s. Drag and trans activism was rooted in the same oppression, and seeds of liberation were planted among the same spaces.

Just a few years after the Gilded Cage disappeared, LGBTQ bars sprouted up all over downtown Denver, and drag became more popular. The International Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire (ICRME) was founded in 1974, and the anti cross-dressing laws ended that same year in Colorado with the Gay Coalition of Denver.

For years after it became legal, drag was still risky.

Performers had to follow the three-piece rule which was widely used to arrest people, though technically the rule never existed. The alleged law required performers to wear men's clothing under their women's clothing.

During the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many of the founders of the Imperial Court of the Rocky Mountain Empire passed away. Still, drag was at the center of many fundraisers, while Denver’s drag culture flourished with artists like Nina Montaldo, Christi Layne, Tiffany Todd, and Scotti Carlyle. Likewise, leaders like former mayor Wellington Webb and Gov. John Hickenlooper held fundraisers alongside them.

Today, we celebrate drag with stories of youth performers, though this practice dates back at least a century to female impersonators who were often only as old as 16 and as young as 10 in the late 19th century. For these young performers, drag offered protection, hope, and community. Then, as well as now, and perhaps always, drag offered a place to belong––a queer, safe space.

Even though today we see folks protesting drag shows like Dragutante, drag, and in fact youth drag, is nothing new. When one sees a nationally known performer like Yvie Oddly, one sees a culture that has flourished and grown. When one sees drag stories entwined with Colorado history, one sees a queer culture emerging from a closeted and forgotten past.

Drag in Colorado is, and always has been, about people finding their space and each other.

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 2 7

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TALKS QUEER MUSIC AND DENVER WAREHOUSE LIFE

I

t’s 2020. The world is literally burning, and we’re about to enter World War III. The queers have pretty much decided it’s the last chapter and there’s nothing left to do but break gender rules and dance. That’s why Picture Plane should be your soundtrack to the apocalypse.

Picture Plane, also known by his birth name, Travis Egedy, has been making dark, dystopian pop music with elements of everything from metal to underground country for a while now.

He was originally making music here in Denver, as part of the collective of artists who lived and played music in warehouses, but has since moved to New York. Still, his heart is very much in the Mile High, and you can hear it in every dark, subversive note he plays.

We chatted with Picture Plane about music, darkness, queerness, and the changing landscape in Denver.

How did your sound evolve to become what it is?

Being a part of a community of artists in Denver was really important because we could bounce ideas off each other and just play for each other all the time. My sound came about really organically. I was always into electronic music and a lot of, like, rap and hip-hop and stuff.

But, I was also going to, like, crazy noise shows and punk shows and stuff.

So, it was this kind of fusion of these electronic beats but with kind of a DIY, noise-punk spirit or something.

by Addison Herron-Wheeler

Photo courtesy of Picture Plane

I wanted to write pop songs but still have it rough and fuzzy around the edges, and noisey. I’ve always been sort of a postmodern artist in that way. It’s like, the influences are all over the place.

And I’m gathering and bringing things in from seemingly very different genres.

A lot of people wouldn’t put those things together, but that’s what I like to do.

How do you feel like that message has evolved or changed?

Tell me about the themes of androgyny and post-gender in your work as Picture Plane. How did those come up, and why are they important to discuss?

I think that was a huge influence from Denver on my my art living inside of Rhinoceropolis being around a lot of, like, queer and anarco-punk type kids. Everyone was really expressing themselves, and I found the concept of playing with gender really fascinating.

And, during those years, I made an album called Thee Physical that was predominantly about playing with gender.

I just found it to be extremely empowering and really radical to be confronting these rigid binaries that to me are totally absurd. I was always concerned with radical freedom, people being free at all costs, and gender is a big part of that, portraying your sex or your gender. I wanted people to be completely open and free and encouraged to be themselves.

Well, I’m not making every song about those themes, but it felt really crucial at that time in Denver. I was thinking a lot about the year 2012 also, like leading up to 2012. I was seeing it as this moment of a radical possibility for an expansion of consciousness and evolving to a higher state of being humans.

You know, I don’t know if that really happened or not. But, at that time, I was super optimistic. I was wanting just, like, a total revolution, really. And In a sense, what we were doing here in Denver was a revolution; we were living that reality, and people were just so open and free.

Everyone was just really encouraged to be themselves. There was a lot of queer optimism, a lot of cool parties, and I just found myself really immersed in the community. It was really inspiring to me.

Do you feel like when Trump got elected, your music got less optimistic or got darker?

There’s always kind of a line of optimism in my artwork, I guess. I don’t want it to be too bleak. I’m not a pessimistic kind of person, even when things are pretty bad, which they are right now. I don’t want to beat people over the head with, like, ‘Oh, this sucks; everything sucks.’ You know?

It’s kind of just boring. There needs to be some escape or some sort of release.

O U T F R O N T M A G A Z I N E . C O M // 2 9

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