By Jon King - jking@whmi.com


Several dozen protesters gathered in front of Howell City Hall late Saturday afternoon to protest the city’s handling of a planned Drag Queen Bingo show.

The event had originally been set for the Howell Melon Festival’s beer tent, but was cancelled after a social media controversy started by Meghan Reckling, Chair of the Livingston County GOP, who called it “inappropriate” and felt it would sexualize the festival. Despite being moved to a private venue, the performers eventually decided against coming to Howell, “due to the overwhelming lack of civil communication in Howell.”

A press release from the group stated that they were gathering “In response to the City of Howell’s inaction of keeping the performers, patrons, and supporters of Drag Queen Bingo (DQB) safe, resulting in DQB canceling their performance,” and they were “asking for accountability from the city to keep *all* of its residents safe.”

21-year-old Rebecca Paris of Hartland was one of the organizers and said they wanted to let city officials know they were disappointed they had given in to “nasty bigotry” and had essentially sent a message that “we shouldn’t do anything because we can’t control homophobia and bigotry” and that helped to reinforce the perception that queer people shouldn’t be allowed in Howell nor feel safe being here.

46-year-old Jessica Prozinski of Ann Arbor called it “ridiculous” that there had even been a controversy over Drag Queen Bingo, and that the City of Howell missed an opportunity to show that they stand for everybody’s rights and that “backing down to hate” was exactly the wrong thing to do.

The vast majority of vehicles honked in support as they passed by the protestors, some even cheering through their open windows. There were several drivers who slowed down as they approached the group and made a point of verbally expressing their disapproval, but they were a distinct minority.

Ironically, a sold-out Drag Queen show took place on Friday night at the Aubrees Pizza in Howell with an all-ages crowd in attendance as various performers lip-synced and danced to popular songs for more than two hours, while also raising more than $1,600 for the Fair Michigan Foundation, an organization dedicated to “advocacy, education, and outreach regarding LGBTQ and men’s and women’s civil rights in the state of Michigan.”

Meanwhile, the scaled-back Melon Festival, sans beer tent and other events due to the controversy, went on as planned from noon to 6pm Saturday with several hundred people participating in Downtown Howell, centered on the lawn of the Historic Courthouse.

Top Photo - Drag performer Lucious Minj
Middle Photo - Jenn of Howell
Bottom Photo - Protesters in front of City Hall