{"id":382138,"date":"2026-10-25T12:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/382138\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T12:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T12:36:55","slug":"drag-queens-go-from-send-noodz-straight-to-the-polls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/382138\/","title":{"rendered":"Drag queens go from Send Noodz straight to the polls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diane Anderson-Minshall pops on Zoom with a \u201860s Pop Art background that makes everything instantly fun. \u201cI\u2019m trying to do a lot of color in my life to, like, bring up the happiness quotient,\u201d the longtime award-winning LGBTQ+ journalist<\/a> says, grinning behind her polka-dot glasses.<\/p>\n

\"\"Diane Anderson-Minshall via Instagram<\/p>\n

At this moment, Diane embodies the joy she is seeking. She is a Pop Art poster for the First Amendment and Freedom of Expression. She is never too nervous to explore intersectionality, with an eye on authenticity.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

During her time at the lesbian publication Curve, Diane told OutNW<\/a>, \u201cI did a fellowship feature on Native American lesbians<\/a>, on the reservation and off. I was nervous to write about the subject since I am mixed-race Native American but raised by a white-identifying family. I was still trying to figure out why public records like the Dawes Rolls and private accounts didn\u2019t match up, and I felt very inauthentic and vulnerable as a white-passing Indigenous woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut talking with other Native queer women changed a lot of that, and it was a good experience personally, even if I was talking about how hard it was on all these women in my story. I don\u2019t read it now and think, oh great work of journalism; but the feeling the experience gave me lingers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Identity matters. In fact, identity can be a joyful resting space for one\u2019s true, authentic self, or it can be an imposed cage \u2013 or a creative temporary description on the way to individual liberation.<\/p>\n

Identity can also be dangerous. Even though intersectional LGBTQ+ people are still not considered an official demographic, the Trump administration\u2019s Project 2025 calls for the \u201ccultural wars\u201d total erasure<\/a> of sexual orientation and gender identity. Stonewall was not just about sexual liberation \u2013 it was about the individual\u2019s right to decide who they are or who they want to be at any given time. Without that reality, \u201cindividual freedom\u201d is just a pipe dream.<\/p>\n

But homosexuality \u2013 just like similar discriminatory effects of political, ideological, and biblical training about race, gender, and non-Christian religions \u2013 has been inculcated as a \u201csexual deviation\u201d in society through generations since the McCarthy witch hunts of the 1950s.<\/p>\n

In 1952, the American Psychiatric Association<\/a> (APA) classified homosexuality as a \u201csociopathic personality disturbance<\/a>\u201c in the same category as \u201ctransvestism<\/a>, pedophilia<\/a>, fetishism<\/a>, and sexual sadism<\/a>.\u201d In 1968, the APA expanded \u201csexual deviation\u201d to a mental disorder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Stonewall, gay and lesbian activists disrupted APA meetings<\/a>, protesting the supposedly \u201cscientific\u201d basis for that diagnosis when existing research by Alfred Kinsey<\/a> and Evelyn Hooker<\/a> indicated otherwise \u2013 that homosexuality is normal and non-pathological<\/a>. In 1973, the APA voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, substituting instead \u201cSexual Orientation Disturbance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years later, the APA issued a statement saying<\/a>, \u201cHomosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social and vocational capabilities,\u201d and urged civil rights legislation and repeal of all discriminatory legislation.<\/p>\n

But America didn\u2019t shift with the APA. Diane Anderson-Minshall\u2019s description of the French Quarter community\u2019s reaction to the devastating fire at the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans<\/a> in 1973 is painful.<\/p>\n

In her June 24, 2013 story for The Advocate<\/a>, \u201cRemembering the Worst Mass Killing of LGBT People in U.S. History<\/a>,\u201d Diane wrote that in \u201cthe swelteringly humid last day of gay pride in the South\u2019s most tolerant city,\u201d the gay bar on the second floor was hosting a two-hour beer bust. When that ended, remaining patrons joined members of the Metropolitan Community Church<\/a> after a sizable MCC service to discuss a fundraiser for the Crippled Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Nobody noticed an ejected troublemaker who vowed revenge by burning down the bar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The downstairs buzzer sounded at 7:52 p.m., and patron Luther Boggs<\/a> opened the door to hell \u2013 the front staircase was engulfed in flames. Bartender Buddy Rasmussen rushed about 20 people out the back exit to the roof, but everyone else was trapped inside. MCC Rev. Bill Larson couldn\u2019t squeeze through the bars and burned to death in full view of onlookers below.<\/p>\n

\"\"MCC pastor Bill Larson, trapped in the window bars<\/p>\n

The New York Times finally published the pastor\u2019s obituary<\/a> in 2019 and cited a Times article<\/a> published the day after the fire in the \u201clavish homosexual bar.\u201d Larson \u201clay like a mannequin\u201d for four hours \u201cin view of the spectators in the narrow street below, his arm resting on the window ledge and his mouth open in what must have been a scream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefighters \u201cdiscovered 28 dead bodies piled up in grotesque mounds atop each other at the bathroom door, the fire escape door, and the windows- any place they could have hoped to escape. Four more people would die either en route to or at the hospital. In all, 32 people were killed that day, including two straight people,\u201d Diane reported.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rev. Troy Perry talking about Pastor Bill Larson on an ABC News Special<\/a> on Aug. 31, 2018<\/p>\n

MCC Founder Rev. Troy Perry<\/a> and his CSW Pride Parade co-founder Morris Kight<\/a> \u201csearched for a church to hold services for the 32 victims; the LGBT community looked to local politicians, the mayor, religious officials, and civic leaders to at least recognize the tragedy. None did,\u201d Diane reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe early 1970s were dripping with homophobia,\u201d Royd Anderson, filmmaker of the documentary The UpStairs Lounge Fire<\/a>, told Diane, noting that Louisiana passed a Crime Against Nature statute in 1974, making sexual acts between gay couples illegal.<\/p>\n

Media reports were quick or cruel. \u201cOne local radio jockey joked, \u2018What will they bury the ashes of queers in? Fruit jars.\u2019 The joke was retold countless times around \u2018respectable\u2019 offices in the city. The newspapers printed quotes from ordinary citizens riddled with homophobia, including \u2018I hope the fire burned their dress off,\u2019 and \u2018The Lord had something to do with this,\u2019\u201d Diane wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery little detail about the setting stays with me (that the dead were lined up on the sidewalk, nobody claimed some of them, and they went to unmarked paupers\u2019 graves, while churches refused to do their memorial services and some funeral homes refused to do their burials,\u201d Diane wrote in The Advocate, a publication she would eventually run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And what of the unknown victims \u2013 closeted gay men with fake IDs whose families still think they\u2019ve been missing all these years?<\/p>\n

Even today, coming out may take an act of courage not to be erased.<\/p>\n

Diane Anderson-Minshall says she\u2019s had \u201ca thousand coming outs, because each time there\u2019s some new coming out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Southern California in 1968, she was raised in Payette, Idaho, by her grandmother, who was a Democrat. At the time, Diane preferred Republicans because they had all the money.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to go back and apologize to so many old people at this point, because I\u2019m like, oh, I get it now!\u201d Diane says during our interview.<\/p>\n

Diane fell in love with print magazines \u201creally, really early,\u201d causing fights between her mother and her stepfather. \u201cWe\u2019re Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses,\u201d Diane says, \u201cso I wasn\u2019t supposed to have magazines. But my mom would just park me in front of the magazine section at the grocery store, and I just loved the smell of newsprint.\u201d<\/p>\n

When she was 12, she moved in with her grandmother and her aunt in Payette. She tried to volunteer at a local printing press, but they didn\u2019t take girls. The local newspaper did, however, launching her journalism career in newsrooms full of men.<\/p>\n

Diane came out in the mid-80s when friends were dying of AIDS. \u201cWe had to navigate a lot,\u201d she says. \u201cIt took two years to come out. That was two closeted years in which my girlfriend and I went on double dates with men.\u201d<\/p>\n

That led to fights. \u201cWe didn\u2019t like the word \u2018lesbian.\u2019 It didn\u2019t feel like us\u2026women who didn\u2019t shave, crunchy girls\u2026I thought that you had to be butch\u2026. I hadn\u2019t met any femmes yet, and so I think we, at that point, were like, oh, we\u2019re just two girls who fell in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diane, her girlfriend, and her best friend moved to New York City, joined ACT UP, and became a family. She was worried that coming out would impact her budding journalism career \u2013 until she wasn\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many friends were dying, and I discovered LGBTQ media at the same time and was like, fuck that. I don\u2019t need the New York Times. Like, I literally had a job interview at the New York Times, and they told me, we\u2019re okay with you being gay, but you just can\u2019t be out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family moved to Los Angeles and joined ACT UP LA, Women\u2019s ACT UP LA, and Queer Nation. In the late \u201880s, she was freelancing for everyone before segueing into being an editor-in-chief and, much later, a CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to put out news in a world where you\u2019re still hated, where the president won\u2019t recognize what you\u2019re going through, and you\u2019re fighting just to have your occupations and your colleagues are dying one at a time in front of you,\u201d Diane recalls.<\/p>\n

\"\"Diane and Jacob\u2019s first year together 1991 (Photo courtesy Anderson-Minshall)<\/p>\n

\u201cJacob and I met when we were both little baby dykes,\u201d Diane says. \u201cAfter I came out, I cut all my hair off.\u2026 I tried to be butch for a hot minute, and then I was in the process of refemining when we met.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacob \u2013 who was still female-identified in public \u2013 moved in with Diane, her now ex-\u201cwife,\u201d and her best friend. \u201cThat was quite a fun ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple then engaged in a series of domestic partnerships in different locales, including West Hollywood, and participated with other same sex couples in a virtual marriage ceremony officiated by San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. They officially wed again after Prop 8 passed, only to have that marriage invalidated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time we married, after we\u2019d been together 16 years as a lesbian couple, Jake came out as transgender, transitioned, and this time we could legally marry as a husband and wife,\u201d Diane says.<\/p>\n

While Diane focused on her career, Jacob focused on finding himself. The couple had already identified as Butch and Femme, but now, at 21, they were living out of a VW bus with their dogs and cats in San Francisco. Diane had a job in the Castro at On Our Backs and, knowing only one trans man, they struggled with not being inadvertently transphobic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both essentially identified as queer,\u201d Diane says.<\/p>\n

Diane grew impatient with Jacob\u2019s impending transition. Finally, \u201cI was like, \u2018Hey, if this is happening, I need it to happen. I can\u2019t stay in this middle space.\u201d They started having long conversations, \u201cbecause that\u2019s what lesbians do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Diane Anderson-MInshall at Curve (Photo courtesy Curve)<\/p>\n

They worried about their jobs. By then, Diane was editing Curve magazine, and Jacob, who had co-founded Girlfriends magazine with her, was now a park ranger \u2013 plus they had a three-book deal with a publisher. But they found acceptance.<\/p>\n

Perhaps their biggest adjustment was within themselves. \u201cWhen we got together,\u201d Diane says, Jacob \u201cwas practically a lesbian separatist, so he had to reconcile a lot more things in his head than I had to.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her part, \u201cI was certainly not a gold star lesbian,\u201d Diane says. \u201cMost lesbians have been with a man at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there was a struggle. A month after Jacob came out, Diane peppered him with all her anxieties. While shopping for new clothes, she\u2019d point out men and say, \u201cNot that, not that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got just so fed up one day, and he was like, \u2018Oh, for God\u2019s sake, then who can I be?\u2019\u201d she recalls. \u201cI was trying to think of the most metrosexual man in my mind, so I said, \u2018Ryan Seacrest.\u2019 And he goes, \u2018Okay, I can do that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we literally bought clothes from Ryan Seacrest\u2019s own fashion label and the other clothes that looked like Ryan Seacrest would wear,\u201d she says. \u201cUntil he found out who he was, it was this gap moment where I was like, \u2018That would not be too much for me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

They were anxious \u2013 until they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at the grocery store, and the woman clerk said, \u2018Oh, I love your blouse.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Thank you. It was a gift from my husband. Well, he used to be my wife. He\u2019s transgender. But I\u2019m a lesbian.\u2019 And then she was like, \u2018Okay.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But that triggered another wave of identification analysis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I still identified as lesbian, then I didn\u2019t respect Jacob as a man. I wasn\u2019t seeing him as an actual man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jacob wanted Diane to identify however she wanted. Diane asked why his transition would change her identity. \u201cMy identity is my core identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Diane Anderson-Minshall and Jacob Anderson Minshall with Jennye, Jacob\u2019s little sister (Photo courtesy Diane Anderson-Minshall)<\/p>\n

Finally, they stopped platforming people who were \u201cselling us the story that this requires a breakup, especially when you\u2019ve been married so long. I mean, we\u2019re 35 years in, so I don\u2019t think I have to justify anything anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Diane comes out saying, \u201cWell, you can choose. I\u2019m either a lesbian identified bisexual or a bisexual-identified lesbian, or I\u2019m queer.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Diane Anderson-Minshall also still identifies as a white-passing mixed-Indigenous woman \u2014 brave and personally free enough to be who she wants to be.<\/p>\n

Please check out our full conversation <\/a>in which we discuss LGBTQ+ media, Diane and Jacob\u2019s acceptance of one another, and more.<\/p>\n

This is a cross-post from Karen\u2019s\u00a0LGBTQ+ Freedom Fighters Substack<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diane Anderson-Minshall pops on Zoom with a \u201860s Pop Art background that makes everything instantly fun. \u201cI\u2019m trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[139871,139872,139873,139874,139875,139876,620,78585,139877,139878,9,24,63,139879,122,124,123,139880,139881,139882,139883],"class_list":["post-382138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-ajsocal","tag-asian-americans-advancing-justice","tag-asian-lgbtq-community","tag-bibi-discoteca","tag-center-for-asian-americans-united-for-self-empowerment-cause","tag-drag-me-to-the-polls","tag-featured","tag-los-angeles-blade","tag-matties-weho","tag-miss-shu-mai","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-qtapi","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-send-noodz","tag-trans-api","tag-translatin-coalition","tag-vote-by-mail-ballots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}