Now that we’ve dispensed with “the political shit,” as Cassie Nova calls it, the mood brightens and the gossip begins to flow. “Why aren’t the kids protected there? Why aren’t they protected at school?” “It’s just an effort to detract from the real issues, like gun control and what’s going on in our churches,” she says. Jenna Skyy is incensed at the idea that drag queens and other LGBTQ people are being targeted under the guise of protecting children. “We’re not 100 percent okay with it, but it was the lesser of a whole bunch of evils.” “Even though they redid the bill and took out all the references to drag queens, this is still an attack on the LGBTQ community,” Cassie Nova says. The final version of the bill, which passed the Texas Senate in May, is now described as a “sexual conduct bill” and prohibits “real or simulated groping, real or simulated arousal and display of a sex toy, if done in a ‘prurient’ manner in front of a minor or on public property.” That change gave the queens some sense of security, but they’re still uneasy about what the future looks like. “But if the law changes, all it takes is one phone call, and there’s citations and arrests.” Our fans come here because they love us,” Jenna Skyy says. “I can only speak for myself, but I have always felt like this was a safe space. Initially, the legislation specifically singled out drag performances, which made performers like Cassie Nova and Jenna Skyy fear for both their jobs and their safety. The week before my visit to the Rose Room, Cassie Nova and Jenna Skyy were among a contingency of queens from Dallas and beyond who’d traveled to Austin to testify before the Texas Legislature against a bill that was intended to prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from attending a drag show. The conversation turns promptly to the recent bills that aim to restrict drag performances across the country, including in Texas. “Our fans come here because they love us.” But the Rose Room has always seemed like a safe space for its performers, who were generous enough to let me tag along for one night to get a glimpse of what an evening in their lives is really like during this bizarre political moment. It’s never been uncommon to see religious groups praying for the souls of all us sinning queers inside the clubs on a typical Friday night. Drag performances, here and inside restaurants all over the country thanks to the popularity of drag brunch, have been targeted by lawmakers in Texas and beyond. But tonight, the Rose Room’s permanent cast of five queens are the stars of the show.īy the sheer virtue of its existence, the Rose Room has become an unwitting battleground in the broader culture wars playing out around the country. A slew of RuPaul’s Drag Race stars, including Shangela LaQuifa Wadley, Asia O’Hara, Kennedy Davenport, and Alyssa Edwards, have appeared on this stage, and it’s a must-stop tour destination for many of the country’s most prominent queens. Open in its current iteration for 38 years, even people who’ve never visited Dallas have heard of it thanks to the legendary queens that this city’s drag scene has birthed. Jenna Skyy has been a drag performer in Dallas for the last 18 years, many of them at the Rose Room, the upstairs space at Station 4 that serves as the city’s most venerable drag venue. Then, Jenna Skyy appears behind me in the lot, rolling a giant suitcase, and the evening begins in earnest. At 8:45 p.m., tucked behind the club, the parking lot is full but weirdly quiet, though I can still hear the bustling throng of people on the Strip, a section of Cedar Springs Road in the city’s Oak Lawn neighborhood that’s served as the heart of Dallas’s LGBTQ nightlife scene for more than four decades. Standing in the back parking lot of Station 4, a sprawling LGBTQ dance club in Dallas, I realize this is the first time I’ve been here while the sun is still out, despite countless visits starting in my late teens.
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