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Pride month drag show canceled at bp
The trend of canceling drag queen events around the country continues and the city of Houston is no exception. One drag queen performer says she found herself exed out of two events during the height of Pride month. FOX 26's Isiah Carey has more on the story.
HOUSTON - The trend of canceling drag queen shows around the country continues and the city of Houston is no exception.
One drag performer says she found herself exed out of two events during the height of Pride month.
Queen Angelina is a well-known drag performer who calls Houston home. She has also traveled across the country performing for nearly a decade.
"It's very demanding as a professional drag queen. I get asked a lot and one of those things is to do activism as well," she says.
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Angelina knew the month of June would be her busiest time as a performer. After all, it is Pride month.
On May 13, she received confirmation from bp, the oil and gas company. A rep says quote, "We're so excited to welcome you next week."
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Angelina says she was scheduled to play the violin, perform, and have a question-and-answer session. But then, things changed.
"They told me that unfortunately, we're not going to move on with it," Angelina states.
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Just before her pride performance at bp, she says she received an email saying her visit would be canceled without a specific reason given. But Angelina knew exactly why. She says she was tipped off.
"They definitely had complaints inside the company. There were some people, some people or some person, didn't want it to happen," Angelina said. "So they had to, the Board had to talk together and figure it out and ultimately they figured out that they just didn't want to do the event."
By all accounts, bp seems to have been a very inclusive company with the LGBTQ+ community. They even sponsored other pride events, but the drag queen show apparently didn't sit well with an employee according to Angelina.
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However, the company issued FOX 26 this statement saying:
"...we remain unwavering in our very public and consistent support of our LGBTQ+ colleagues and the broader LGBTQ+ community. Following substantive conversations with our LGBTQ+ employee resource group, we are moving forward with additional educational events for employees and will be hosting a trans awareness event later this year aimed at further supporting staff and their families."
"The sad thing is that these types of events are made, so we can educate people and these people that are uncomfortable decide to ruin it for everybody," Angelina says. "They decide to ruin it for everybody. And then they don't get an education themselves and if they don't want to be there, they don't have to show up."
Angelina says she did get paid by bp and they haven't requested the money back.