Border ‘Bling-O”: Drag queens, churches and activists raise money for migrants, asylum seekers

NBC News reports on a fascinating story from Harlingen, Texas:

“Drag queen Beatrix Lestrange, whose real name is Joe Uvalles, is wearing a neon multi-colored dress, a red wig and a pair of black pumps. She’s standing in front of a full room of mostly baby boomers and is ready to call out numbers for bingo. 

“Can we kill these lights?” Lestrange laughs. “These are not drag queen friendly.”

Lestrange, a self-proclaimed ‘dragtivist,’ was hosting a game of bingo, but it was slightly different. In this “Bling-o,” the players competed for donated jewelry instead of cash.

“Bingo, to me, sounded kind of boring,” said Andi Atkinson, the organizer of the event and executive director of La Posada Providencia, a shelter for asylum seekers and refugees. “We decided, why not give away bling?”

Bling-O was the result of a web of unorthodox partnerships. Lestrange was invited to support La Posada Providencia at an LGBT-friendly Christian church in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas on the U.S.-Mexico border.

What brought the groups together? A shared crusade for immigrant justice, where participants paid a fee at the door, which all went to the shelter.”

KJ