Last night, the hottest gay dance party wasn’t in New York or L.A. It wasn’t in a WeHo hotspot, a Hells Kitchen mega club, or even a Bushwick warehouse. It was in Washington, D.C., and it was at Mike Pence’s house.
Around 6pm, approximately 400 LGBT activists gathered outside the Vice President-elect’s temporary home in D.C.’s Chevy Chase neighborhood to bump and grind until 8:30pm. The peaceful protest was organized by grassroots groups WERK for Peace and DisruptJ20 to voice their opposition to Pence’s well documented anti-gay and anti-trans record.
According to a local Fox News affiliate, the VP-elect wasn’t home to join in the festivities—he was helping Donald Trump raise funds for the inauguration at the National Portrait Gallery—but protesters planned to leave behind biodegradable glitter and rainbow paraphernalia as a reminder of the queer resistance to the incoming administration’s agenda.
“We had hundreds of people come out to assert our bodies and space and state that we are here, we are queer and we will dance,” WERK for Peace founding organizer Firas Nasr told Fox 5 DC.
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Meanwhile, videos from the protest will give you so much life:
These are the streets outside Mike Pence’s house in D.C., shut down by activists throwing a Queer Dance Party tonight. Pure jubilance. pic.twitter.com/GrJAgvSZBh
— Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) January 19, 2017
If this video of @werkforpeace organizer Firas Nasr leading the protest doesn’t make you want to become a political organizer, nothing will. pic.twitter.com/tBHiRMOsa4
— Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) January 19, 2017
The queer dance party at Mike Pence’s house is fucking lit pic.twitter.com/RfCJhWb3MZ
— joanna (@_joannaw) January 19, 2017
Also, the future vice president of the United States currently lives in a neighborhood called Chevy Chase. Because…that’s the America we live in now and of course he does.
Correction: An earlier version of this post mistakenly suggested that the D.C. neighborhood where the protest took place was named after the actor Chevy Chase in a throw-away joke at the very end. We regret the error—but come on, it was an easy mistake to make and like, that’s what you took away from this?
SnakeyJ
Really? The author of this piece really believes Chevy Chase DC was named after the actor? The district was given that name in the late 1800’s.
Brian
All I see are a lot of females and pansy males. Too much estrogen. Where are the men?
Xzamilloh
That dude wasn’t twerking… he was just shaking his lower back, and it looked painful.
Xzamilloh
And was there Cece Peniston? Because it’s not a gay party without a drag queen lip syncing to Cece Peniston.
I’m also a little “triggered” by the horrible off-key singalong to Whitney Houston. The woman hasn’t even been sober for 5 years yet and they are desecrating her good name
DogCollarPistolWhip
Great. Now, go do that in front of the Saudi embassy. The ones who kill gays and gave Hillary $20 million. Go do that in front of any one of the 1000 conservative mosques that preach that we should all be killed. You won’t, because Leftists are brainwashed into supporting their own destruction.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I love your idea; part of the pride parades and protests should be done right outside the Saudi embassy, with every segment of our community and our allies present. Let me see what we can do here in Canada, this is a great suggestion for effective activism.
mhoffman953
Oh boy, I bet that really showed him. He probably turned to his wife and said, “WTF I love gays now”. Not serious.
If these gay people really wanted to make progress, they’d try to negotiate a sit down meeting with Mike Pence and Trump and discuss the issues which concern them and educate people about their social cause just as many people in the African American community have done over the past several weeks.
dwes09
@DogCollarPistolWhip
Are you really so dull and confused that you think imagined threats are reasons to allow our civil liberties here to be eroded? The trumped up fear of Muslim violence is no reason to acquiesce to attacks from those you seem eager to be toady for.
There is a not so subtle difference between giving Hillary money (which the Saudi’s did not do), and giving it to a well respected foundation that uses it for direct action in furthering women’s progress, eradicating disease and reducing poverty abroad (that would be the Clinton Foundation). Had they given it to the Trump foundation (under investigation for misuse of funds); now THAT would be directly putting it in someone’s pocket.
The threats to women, women’s reproductive rights, lgbt people and our legal protection, labor unions, environmental causes, workplace safety, and much more are CLEAR and REAL. They (except for the really stupid regressive minds) trump your imagined threat from bogey-man Islam.
DogCollarPistolWhip
“imagined threats are reasons to allow our civil liberties here to be eroded? ”
*goes on to list a number of imagined threats*
As for the Clinton Foundation, if it is such an important force for good, why is it shutting down now that Hillary is no longer involved in any part of our government that makes foreign policy? Because it was pay-to-play, and now that she has no official power in our government, those donors aren’t getting the “play”, ergo no “pay”.
Anyway, gay people like to lash out at Christians in this country, when the real existential threat here and in Europe (and globally) is Islam. They’re just too scared (or too stupid) to confront the real existential threat.
Hillary’s “foundation” and campaign (separate) took millions and millions of dollars from countries that execute gays. Gays here won’t acknowledge that, and they certainly won’t protest Muslim hate preachers.
Xzamilloh
Her donations dwindled seriously in the wake of Trump’s win, and DogCollar is right on the money when he purports why. She didn’t produce an ROI (return on investments) and now they are cutting their losses. Clinton is as establishment as they come. That said, I voted for her, the moderately lesser of the two evils that were guaranteed the White House.
I think the reason we don’t go after Muslim homophobes is the same reason we don’t go after Jewish homophobes (in this country): They’re smart enough to keep it off of TV and not make a spectacle of themselves. I have changed my tune when it comes to religious owned places and would take my business elsewhere. I wouldn’t want them working on anything for me anyway.