'RuPublicans' top fundraising goal for billboard to hit back at Abbott's Texas drag ban
A billboard challenging an impending ban on drag performances in Texas will go up in Austin early next week after a crowdfunding campaign organized by the makers of “RuPublicans” — a parody Instagram account that uses artificial intelligence to reimagine Republican political leaders as drag queens — crushed its fundraising goal in a single weekend.
“The Texas drag ban drops Sept 1st and we want to do something about it,” the husband-and-husband duo behind the account wrote in a Friday post on GoFundMe. “We're throwing a 72-hour blitz to rally $10,000 for a billboard in Austin that'll make the state do a double-take.”
Texas in June became the latest in a growing number of Republican-led states to restrict certain drag performances that take place in public or where they could be viewed by minors when Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Senate Bill 12 into law.
The measure prohibits Texas businesses from hosting “sexually oriented” performances in which someone is nude or appeals to the “prurient interest in sex” in the presence of minors. Those who break the law are likely to face hefty fines — up to $10,000 per violation.
Performers are threatened with much harsher penalties, and those caught violating the state’s new restrictions on drag could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
While the law does not explicitly mention drag performances, an earlier version contained direct references to drag, and GOP state leaders have said repeatedly that the measure is intended to restrict drag shows.
As of Monday afternoon, the RuPublican’s billboard fundraiser had received more than $16,400 from 800 donors, far surpassing the campaign’s original goal of $10,000.
The couple behind the Instagram account and crowdfunding campaign wrote in a Monday update that the extra funds will be donated to four local LGBTQ organizations, including Equality Texas and the Transgender Education Network of Texas.
A billboard with the message, “Mind your wigs, not our gigs, Greg,” will go up next Monday — the same day that a trial in an ACLU lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 12 is set to begin — on I-35 southbound in North Austin for a four-week placement, according to the RuPublican’s GoFundMe.
“It will catch all of the people commuting into the city everyday from North Austin. If you are in the area, go find it next week!” the duo wrote Monday on their GoFundMe page. “Take photos, post on your social media, and encourage people to share to help send the message to the lawmakers in the Texas Capitol.”
The RuPublican’s Instagram account, which boasts more than 285,000 followers, gained national attention this year after several of its AI-generated portraits of Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Josh Hawley (Mo.), in drag went viral.
The account, whose name is a nod to the drag competition show “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” has reimagined prominent GOP figures, also including former New York mayor and Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, as drag queens using an AI text-to-image program called Midjourney, the duo behind the account told NBC News in April.
“We’re huge fans of drag, and we were bearing witness to the GOP’s anti-drag rhetoric and action, and we wanted to do something about it, so we said, ‘Let’s put the GOP in drag,’” Craig, who asked that his last name not be published for safety reasons, told the outlet.
During an Instagram “Ask Me Anything” in June, the couple said, “We both have to be giggling before we’re satisfied and ready to post.”