Steamboat Springs Drag Organizers Plan Even Bigger Show After Threat

Madame Sassysquatch is the organizer of the only drag show in Steamboat Springs. When he’s in drag, he’s glammed up, usually in a flamboyant wig and dress, and heavily bearded. The show attracts both LGBTQ folks and a straight crowd. But this resort town, surrounded by pockets of conservatism and family ranches in the Yampa Valley, can be a difficult place to glitter.

On July 17, a man was arrested for threatening to “shoot up” Schmiggity's Live Music & Dance Bar, where the Fresh Drag Show has been held at 9 and 11 p.m. every third Wednesday for over a year.

Madame Sassysquatch, who prefers to go by his drag name, wasn’t entirely surprised; he says he was initially nervous to organize the show in Steamboat Springs, where the LGBTQ community has only recently established a resource center and become more visible. “I was afraid that this threat would happen sooner, to be honest,” he adds.

Rather than be deterred, though, Madame Sasssysquatch has vowed that the show will go on. Now he is planning to hold a "bigger than ever" drag show at Schmiggity’s on August 21, which will feature Club Q drag artist Finnish Hymn Alnite as well as amateur performers. “We’re going to stand together as a community,” he says.

In recent years, drag shows have become targets of hate and conservative backlash throughout the country. Right-wing politicians have run campaign ads attacking drag as a cultural expression of the “radical left.” A doughnut shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was firebombed after holding a drag show. Law enforcement authorities are investigating an attack on the power grid in Moore County, North Carolina, which some locals believe was aimed at shutting down a local drag show.

One of the most disturbing acts of violence directed at the LGBTQ community came on November 19, 2022, when a gunman killed five people and wounded seventeen others during a drag queen performance at the Club Q bar in Colorado Springs. The 24-year-old shooter pleaded guilty to 74 charges, including fifty hate crimes, in June 2023.

Scott Simpson, an organizer with Qommittee, a volunteer-led organizing campaign that's building a national network of drag artists and is supporting the Fresh Drag Show, says that “hostility to drag exists all over the country.” He blames some politicians for sowing division: “They seek political gain by being bullies against these drag artists."

In the Yampa Valley, a clash of values isn’t just visible around the LGBTQ community. In January, the police chief of Oak Creek retired from his job following an investigation into his actions while attempting to enforce state liquor-code law that bars acts that simulate “sexual intercourse” after he witnessed a performance by “Magic Hunks,” an all-male entertainment group at a local bar.

The first large-scale Yampa Valley Pride event was held in front of a courthouse in Steamboat Springs in 2021. Chelsie Holmes, the program manager of Queer Futures in Steamboat, says that members of the LGBTQ community are keenly aware that the more visible they become, the more likely they are to receive backlash.

The drag show helps to “normalize” their presence, Holmes says. “Having a regular drag show here is a way for the LGBTQ community and culture to be ingrained,” she notes. “It’s a pure expression of our culture. It’s not watered down.”

Many in the Yampa Valley's small LGBTQ community have come together in the wake of the threat against the Fresh Drag Show, offering Madame Sassysquatch and his fellow performers support. Queer Futures coordinated a meeting with the police and held a “coffee with a cop” event. According to Holmes, Steamboat’s police department seems to be genuinely concerned about the safety of the drag artists, even drawing up a safety plan for them.

According to the Steamboat Pilot, the suspect has been charged with “a felony count of inciting destruction of life or property and misdemeanor charges of harassment, bias-motivated crimes and menacing.” John Clark's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
When Madame Sassysquatch decided to organize a drag show in Steamboat Springs, he was lonely for people like himself. He didn’t have a cast when he asked the owner of Schmiggity’s to allow him to put on a show, but he soon found six regular performers; intermission is dedicated to amateurs. The show has been a success, drawing solid crowds every month.

He now envisions taking it on tour around the state. “I want to connect the mountain gay community and the city,” he says. “I think we can all have fun.”