Drag queens hold protest at border, raise funds for LGBT asylum seekers

A group of drag queens on Saturday held a protest in front of a structure along the U.S.-Mexico border to voice opposition to a border wall and to raise money for LGBT asylum-seekers. 

The group, which consisted of drag queens from the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas, said their goal for the “No Border Wall Protest Drag Show” was to argue that a crisis does not exist at the border, according to NBC News. 

{mosads}The show was held in Brownsville, Texas, in front of an existing border structure.

The Brownsville Herald noted that funds raised from the event would be donated to Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) and Organizacion Latina de Trans en Texas, a pair of nonprofit groups that offer assistance to other groups and individuals. 

Beatrix Lestrange, who organized the performance, told NBC News that the vision for the event was to “perform in front of this wall and project our beauty and our glamour and our empowerment against this symbol that stands for hate, racism and xenophobia.”

“All of these things that aren’t really happening in our community,” Lestrange said.

Lestrange told The Brownsville Herald last week that the event would also highlight “the injustices LGBT people face when seeking asylum.”

NBC News noted that every queen lip-synced a song in a flashy outfit during the show. 

The show occurred more than a week after President Trump declared a national emergency to tap into additional funds, including from the military, for construction of his long-sought border wall.

The announcement came after Congress passed a government funding bill that allocated $1.375 billion for construction of physical barriers along parts of the U.S. southern border, well below the $5.7 billion requested by Trump.