Lady MAGA

Lady MAGA is a drag queen who supported Donald Trump during the United States presidential election, 2020. The Lady MAGA character is performed by a Salt Lake City resident who uses the pseudonym "Ryanna Woods".[1]

Performer

Ryanna Woods was raised in Salt Lake City, Utah as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.[2] By the late 2010s, Ryanna Woods had established a reputation in the small community of drag queens in Salt Lake City, Utah for her characterizations of Disney princesses.[3] Woods – who is gay – said that he felt ostracized when he decided to vocalize his support for Donald Trump to friends within the LGBTQI community in the mid 2010s.[2]

Character

Debut

In August 2019, in posts to his social media accounts, Woods unveiled the Lady MAGA character declaring that "I support President Trump, and I believe that together we can make America gay … I mean great again!"[3] According to Woods, his motivation for creating the Lady MAGA character was out of concern for the future of gun rights in the United States.[4]

The Lady MAGA character was described by Real Clear Politics as approximately 6.5 feet (2.0 m) in height "with long blond hair ... a red-white-blue tutu and red 8-inch heeled knee-high go-go boots".[5] "MAGA" is an abbreviation for "Make America Great Again", a campaign slogan used by the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign.[6]

Appearances

Lady MAGA attended a number of Donald Trump, and other political, rallies in Utah during the 2020 United States presidential election, and addressed rallies organized by gay supporters of Trump in Los Angeles and Nashville in October 2020.[7][3][8][9] She also appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2020 in National Harbor, Maryland, among other conservative political events.[10] Woods was present during a confrontation between supporters and opponents of Donald Trump in San Francisco's Mission District in early 2020, described by Mission Local as "a tense and bizarre scene".[11]

Reception

Woods' unveiling of the Lady MAGA character was generally unwelcome by many drag queens in Utah, though the Salt Lake City Weekly also noted that, though they disagreed with him, some felt Woods was "brave" for taking a political stand at odds with that generally accepted by the larger LGBTQI community.[3]

Woods has said that he is aware some Trump supporters were uncomfortable with his presence at Donald Trump campaign rallies but that he was generally "left alone" and that he "felt like the beauty of America is there's room for everyone, even people who might not want to bake me a cake at their bakery".[2]

When she attended a demonstration to overturn the election in Freedom Plaza in November 2020, speaker Nick Fuentes pointed her out and said, "That is disgusting! I don't want to see that!" causing part of the crowd to chant "Shame!"[12]

See also

References
  1. "USA: Trump-supporting drag queen 'Lady Maga' joins Beverly Hills rally | Video Ruptly". www.ruptly.tv. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
  2. Leonard, Krysten (September 15, 2020). "Trump rally-goers on why they took risk to attend Nevada campaign events, favor president amid pandemic". Nevada Independent. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  3. Holslin, Peter (August 16, 2019). "Trump Queen". Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  4. Holslin, Peter (August 28, 2019). "Second Coming: How a gay kid who loves Disney princesses became Utah's most divisive drag queen". Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  5. Adams, Myra (February 28, 2020). "At CPAC, the Trumplican Party Rules". Real Clear Politics. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  6. "What does this hat mean to Americans?". BBC News. June 18, 2019. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  7. Christiansen, Noah (October 24, 2020). "Gay Trump supporters late night one block WeHo march". Los Angeles Blade. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  8. Wakefield, Lily (October 15, 2020). "LGBT+ Republicans thought it would be a good idea to crowd together in a dingy distillery without face masks in the middle of a pandemic". Pink News. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  9. "Hundreds hold 'Blue Rally' to thank and celebrate police officers". KSL-TV. June 21, 2020. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  10. Wang, Esther (March 2, 2020). "A Random List of Terrible Things We Saw and Heard at CPAC". Jezebel. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  11. Mark, Julian (February 1, 2020). "Pro-Trump rally sparks clash at Women's Building in SF's Mission". Mission Local. Retrieved October 28, 2020.
  12. Mogelson, Luke (January 15, 2020). "Among the Insurrectionists". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
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