Taylor PRIDE put two names in the same announcement in 2021: State Rep. James Talarico and an 11-year-old performer who goes by Kween Kee Kee.
Five years later, that announcement has resurfaced.
Talarico, a Democrat, now faces Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate race, and the closing stretch of the campaign has pulled the festival back into view.
The Washington Free Beacon revived the story in an August report. Republicans have cited it since, as they criticize the state lawmaker’s liberal positions on social issues.
Taylor PRIDE held the event on June 26, 2021, in Taylor, a town northeast of Austin. The group organized it as a fundraiser for “rural LGBTQ communities.”
The announcement promised numerous speakers, musical guests such as Venus Loves Mars and, in the group’s words, “the absolute cutest & youngest of our drag performers.”
The schedule also listed live music, a “drag story hour” and adult drag performers, including Brianna Brinxx and Sedonya Face.
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian, took his place among the speakers.
Photos cited by the Free Beacon show him addressing the crowd and posing with attendees at Texas Beer Company.
Other images from the day show the child in a blue dress, a platinum blond wig and heavy eye makeup during the event’s “Youth Drag Show.”
An attendee recorded the child doing the splits and posted the footage online.
Objections came quickly.
Taylor PRIDE said an unnamed conservative organization had “ridiculed & protested” the festival “for being sexually explicit and exploitation of a child,” and the organizers denied the charge.
The group answered on social media with photographs of Kween Kee Kee and several adult performers. “You tell us if that rings true,” the organizers wrote.
The same post displayed images of Sedonya Face, Belladonna Dior and Felecia Enspire. A caption reading “Hot Mama” accompanied Enspire’s photograph.
Talarico’s own statements have drawn Republican attention as well.
At a Texas House hearing, he declared that “God is nonbinary.” In a 2022 sermon at his Austin church, he called women “our neighbors with a uterus.”
His legislative record adds to the criticism.
Talarico sits in the Texas House’s LGBTQ+ caucus, and he opposed Republican legislation that targeted drag performances in front of children.
“We produce some of the best drag performers in the nation,” he said in 2023. “We didn’t want to hurt them.”
During a podcast interview that year, he said he felt “love” for transgender children.
He spoke after a group rallied at the state Capitol in support of a pro-transgender bill. “It was an inspiration to watch,” he said.
The Free Beacon reported that Talarico has since called his nonbinary remark “cringey.”
The outlet also reported that he took language off his campaign website that accused Republicans of trying to “bully trans children.”
Republican critics have responded with a nickname for him: “Talafreako.”
Talarico has pushed back on the portrait of him as culturally out of step.
After a 2022 video resurfaced of him pledging to make his campaign vegan, he posted a photograph of himself in a Texas flag shirt, eating a large barbecue turkey leg.
Taylor PRIDE drew local attention again months after the festival.
The group sponsored a float in the city’s Christmas parade, and two adult performers from the earlier event, Felecia Enspire and Sedonya Face, rode on it.
Residents objected to their presence on the float.
