A drag event in Dallas failed to raise enough funds and was forced to cancel after already postponing the event a month.
The “Dallas Pride Street Party” intended to be “a last hurrah” before Senate Bill 12 in Texas took effect, The Dallas Express reported Monday. The law prohibits sexually explicit shows in front of minors, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick said the law would protect children from being, “sexualized by drag shows.” (RELATED: Amanda Abbington Does Damage Control Over Resurfaced Tweets Reportedly Opposing ‘Over-Sexualized’ Drag Show For Kids)
“Unfortunately, Dallas Pride must announce the August 26 Street Party has been cancelled,” the Dallas Pride website notes. “The bottom line is the funding just did not come together. These kinds of events are very expensive to produce here in Dallas. As a 501c3 we have a fiduciary duty to spend our funding wisely, and since we were not able to obtain enough sponsorship for the event we were forced to cancel it.”
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” interim executive director of Dallas Pride Christine Bengston said.
LGBTQ organization Dallas Pride had to cancel its “A Night of a Thousand Drag Queens” event after the organization failed to raise sufficient funds.
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” the group told me. @DallasExpress https://t.co/nD3pe6BVHK
— Patrick Hauf (@PatrickHauf) August 14, 2023
“We were hoping and were billing it as a last hurrah to come fill the street with drag queens. We thought that people would come together. Well, it didn’t work.”
Dallas Pride hoped to raise $75,000 for the march. An event description notes that, “Events like these are EXTREMELY expensive to produce in the City of Dallas.”
“With the recent legislation that has passed here in Texas, Dallas Pride along with many organizations are unsure how this is going to affect our ability to host events publicly,” the description reads. “We know the community and our allies will fight it in the courts, so we hope for the best but we must prepare for the worse.”