Drag Out The Vote™’s mission is to educate, register, and turn out voters with the art and activism of drag.
Drag Out The Vote’s national co-chairs set the blueprint for this program, in their personal activism and when joining our team this year. They are Brita Filter, of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12, Jaremi Carey (also known as Phi Phi O’Hara) of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4 and All-Stars 2, and Marti G. Cummings, prominent drag performer, activist, and passionate organizer in NYC.
100 million people did not vote in 2016.
1 in 5 LGBTQ+ adults is not registered to vote.
Youth voter turnout had a historic high in the 2018 midterms… of only 35%.
We must fix this.
Why Drag Performers?
This national, first-of-its-kind program will be used to assemble drag artists across America to drag out the vote in November.
Since its earliest inceptions, Drag has blended art and activism. On stage and online, drag performers command attention, speak their minds, and make a statement with every move. Drag queens gave us the Stonewall uprising in 1969. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence organized and educated the queer community during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s. They challenge our perceptions of gender, headline Pride mainstages, and speak their minds every day, so we asked ourselves - how do we empower those artists to increase voter turnout?
1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people is not registered to vote, and youth turnout continues to be a challenge, election cycle after election cycle. The power of these two groups, specifically, is one that has the potential to change the future of our country - for Trans rights, queer workplace protections, access to lifesaving HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, for access to gender-affirming healthcare, and more. These issues, and so many others, matter to the audiences of drag performers, be them television stars or local nightclub legends.
How It Works
Our organizers produce online content, host events, fundraise, and reach out to their fans to share voting information and energize their audiences around the importance of civic engagement.
In coordination with our national partners, including Planned Parenthood, LGBTQ Victory Institute, the Human Rights Campaign, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, we're training these drag artists to be leaders in their communities by registering voters, getting out the vote, and making sure that every ballot is counted and that every vote matters.
Once trained, our Drag Ambassadors will be equipped with social media content, video PSA scripts, resources for voter registration, and more to empower them all to turn their audiences out to make their voices heard.
Meet Our 300+ Drag Ambassadors from across America helping us get out the vote!
Applications for Drag Out The Vote's Drag Ambassador program have closed for 2020!
We're so thrilled with the engagement in our first year of this program, in a most critical year to get out the vote!
For 2020, we now have over 300 Drag Ambassadors engaged in getting out the vote in their communities by creating and posting digital content, text banking and phone banking, and more.
In 2021 and beyond, we will be expanding our community of Drag Ambassadors to get out the vote in local, midterm, and future general elections.
Still want to help? Join the "Werk Force" by helping amplify our message, signing up for our email newsletter, and setting up a small-dollar recurring donation to fund our fierce efforts. You will so want to get on our email newsletter list so you are the first to know when we open up the 2021 Drag Ambassador Applications.
Thank you,
Team Drag Out The Vote
