This is Typical of How Politicians Change Chameleon Like to Fit an Agenda & WHY You Must Keep the Pressure Up on Them With Phone Calls On Issues; She is FAR From the Worst Too!
Drag queen blasts GOP candidate for Arizona governor
Comment: Phone The White House (202-456-1111) And Articulate Your Immigration-Exasperation
https://www.senate.gov/senators/How_to_correspond_senators.htm
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Election 2022 Governor Arizona Lake
FILE – Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake attends a rally in Florence, Ariz., on Jan. 15, 2022. Lake condemned the growing cultural clout of drag queens, jumping into the latest social grievance taking hold on the right. Her comments were quickly condemned by Richard Stevens, one of the most popular drag performers in Phoenix, who says Lake regularly attended drag shows and had photos on his social media accounts of Lake posing with drag queens and screenshots of his conversations with her. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
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JONATHAN J. COOPER
Mon, June 20, 2022 at 7:53 PM·4 min read
PHOENIX (AP) — Kari Lake, the frontrunner in the Republican primary for Arizona governor, condemned the growing cultural clout of drag queens, jumping into the latest social grievance taking hold on the right.
But her comments were quickly criticized over the weekend by one of the most popular drag performers in Phoenix, who says Lake is a hypocrite who frequented his performances.
Richard Stevens, who performs as Barbra Seville, said Lake, a former television news anchor, regularly attended drag shows and even hired him to dress as Marilyn Monroe at a private party and brought her young daughter. He posted photos on his social media accounts of Lake posing with drag queens and screenshots of his conversations with her.
The dispute between the gubernatorial frontrunner and the prominent drag queen drew national attention and put Lake on the defensive two weeks before early voting begins ahead of Arizona’s Aug. 2 primary. It also fuels a persistent criticism of Lake’s conversion from Barack Obama donor to Donald Trump conservative.
“They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens,” Lake tweeted on Friday night. “They took down our Flag and replaced it with a rainbow. They seek to disarm Americans and militarize our Enemies. Let’s bring back the basics: God, Guns & Glory.”
Stevens responded on social media the next morning: “I’ve performed for her. I’ve performed for her family. I’ve met her kids. I’ve been in her home, and I have her private phone number and her private Facebook account.”
He told The Associated Press on Monday that he stayed in touch with Lake and privately defended her even as she ran a far-right campaign that he disagreed with. But when she came after drag queens, he said, “this hypocrisy really bothered me.”
“I was just personally offended by that tweet,” Stevens said.
Stevens said he first met Lake in the late 1990s, when he performed regularly at a gay bar near the KSAZ studios, where Lake was an evening anchor. He said Lake and her coworkers would sometimes stop by the bar’s weekly drag show after the broadcast, and he recognized her from watching the news. They eventually struck up a friendship, he said. She would ask him for sources to discuss issues affecting the LGBTQ community, and he occasionally appeared on Fox 10 broadcasts.
