Drag queens rally to make sure LGBT+ seniors had a Valentine’s Day to remember
The local community rallied together to show their love for LGBT+ seniors with handmade Valentine’s Day cards. (Danny Beers/Facebook)
A group of drag queens in Chicago showed the power of the queer community when they came together to make sure local LGBT+ seniors received Valentine’s Day cards.
The Chicago Black Drag Council partnered with nonprofit Our Art of Giving along with local businesses to help LGBT+ elders feel the love for the special occasion.
The initiative, called the Valentine’s Day Senior Prize project, saw drag queens partner with several bars in the city to create 200 Valentine’s Day cards for older people living in Town Hall Apartments, Halsted, according to NBC Chicago.
“Within the LGBTQ community, we can find ourselves often out-aged or overlooked and it’s important that we make sure that doesn’t happen,” Jo Mama, a drag queen and co-founder of the Chicago Black Drag Council said.
“It’s our inherent responsibility to give back to the people who opened doors for us.”
The initiative kicked off when Chicago Black Drag Council member Jesse Fails suggested they deliver cards to LGBT+ elders for Valentine’s Day.
LGBT+ seniors were gifted with heartwarming Valentine’s Day cards.
Jo Mama later approached Danny Beers, Generations LGBT coordinator at Our Art of Giving, to arrange the heartfelt gesture. From there, they made contact with Town Hall Apartments to organise the gifting of Valentine’s Day cards.
Beers shared a video of the cards being dropped off outside older LGBT+ people’s apartments on Facebook.
The gorgeous, handmade cards featured puntastic messages such as: “You’re one in a melon” and “You’ve stolen a pizza my heart.”
“Thank you so much to all who participated,” Beers wrote. “We exceeded our goal.”
Beers had previously arranged a food drive for LGBT+ seniors in Chicago in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic kicked off.
“I just wanted to show them as much love as I could in their golden years,” he said.
Beers encouraged people who want to help out older LGBT+ people to contact Our Art of Giving on Facebook.
