Local performer helps Drag the Vote

By Lethbridge Herald on April 25, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Ahead of the 2025 federal election, hundreds of Canadian drag performers from across the country, including stars of Canada’s Drag Race, launched a national campaign to mobilize 2SLGBTQIA+ people and allies in the 2025 federal election to vote. 

The campaign is called Drag the Vote and it is focused on engaging, educating and mobilizing Canadians to vote for the party they believe will best suited to uphold the rights and freedom of members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community in the 2025 federal election.

Southern Alberta campaign ambassador Jordan Deering, whose drag performer name is Anona-Miss, says it is important that members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and allies go out and vote. 

“The campaign was launched earlier this year in March and it is about the 2SLGBTQIA+ rights at the moment,” says Deering. “We are looking at trans rights right now as they seemed to be targeted by right wing groups, such as the Conservative Party.”

Deering adds that the campaign’s goal is to inspire members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community and allies, to do their research on what party they believe will be best suited to protect and uphold their rights and to go out and vote. 

“In my personal opinion, that would be either the Liberal Party or the NDP, but mostly the Liberal Party.”

Concerns over rights and freedom stem from the various legislation proposed by the provincial government against trans youth, including here in Alberta.

“One of the most recent things is that the United Conservative Party…made a commitment to ban transgender women from women’s prisons… and that commitment, if enacted, will put transgender women at an increased risk of violence, in an already violent criminal justice system,” says Deering. 

She adds that Drag the Vote is asking the candidates and party leaders to uphold freedom and human rights for queer and trans people, to sustainably fund health care services for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and tackle affordability for 2SLGBTQIA+ Canadians. 

So far, one of the biggest things they have been able to accomplish through fundraising is the ability to put up 12 billboards across major cities across Canada showcasing the Drag the vote campaign. 

“Join us in proving queer liberation will prevail time and time again regardless of how many times homophobic and transphobic forces try to suppress our community, we will rise, adapt, and continue fighting for acceptance, love, and equality,” says Deering. 

For more information and to take part on the campaign visit http://www.dragthevote.ca.