Moms for Liberty official detained by police following viral meltdown over drag queens in hotel
A chair of the California Moms for Liberty chapter has been filmed having an epic meltdown over drag queens were in her hotel lobby. (X/Marina Del Rey)
A chairwoman of the California chapter of Moms for Liberty, Beth Bourne, was detained by police after she had an epic meltdown because drag queens were in the lobby of the Hawaiian hotel where she was staying.
The video, which has gone viral online, was posted by one of the drag queens, Marina Del Rey, and shows Moms for Liberty’s Bourne kicking off about a situation that she described as degrading.
Moms for Liberty is an anti-queer, conservative group that, among other things, campaigns to ban books that address gender and sexuality from school libraries.
“This is misogyny,” Bourne is seen to say in the clip. “If you give me back my money right now, I will leave the hotel. But I’m not going to have my children come down from the 30th floor to see what’s happening here.”
‘Are you a man?’
In the video, she goes on to ask one of the drag queens whether they were a man, before saying her son “might think he can put on makeup and fancy clothing and high heels, and have his p***s cut off and take oestrogen and grow fake b***s like those.”
Bourne, who is a program director for the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, claims she spent $3,000 (£2,370) on her stay at the plush Alohilani Resort, on the island of Oahu’s famous Waikiki beach, and didn’t expect to see drag queens. She demands to speak to police.
Taking to Instagram, Del Rey said she and the other drag queens were in the property to “film a video for an upcoming pageant, playing roles as hotel staff”.
Talking about Bourne’s outburst, she said: “This woman saw us filming and came to a slow burn, then popped off. Her rant went on and on, possibly with the attempt to get an angered response. She didn’t get one.”
Rey added that she was a “little saddened” but “grateful to the people we were in the company of and everyone who reached out, and [is] still keeping faith in humanity”.
Police placed Bourne in handcuffs for a short time for causing a disturbance. She was not arrested or taken to a police station and faces no charges. However, she is not allowed back in the hotel, according to Queerty.
Bourne took to X to confirm that it was her in the video, and wrote: “I am not OK with children being exposed to drag queens. Several other hotel guests told me they also found it offensive so I spoke to the manager yesterday.
“I was briefly detained by police, refunded my hotel charges and have no regrets for speaking up.”
The Sacramento Bee is reported to have said Bourne became an anti-trans activist following the rupture of the relationship with her eldest child, Lily.
Lily Bourne, 18, came out as non-binary five years ago, moving out of Bourne’s home in their junior year of high school after clashes over their gender identity,” according to a Daily Mail story.
Bourne has previously claimed on X/Twitter that more than 1,800 students at the University of California, Davis – where Bourne works – identify as transgender and are provided with free breast binders, bras and gender-marker changes to their birth certificates, without their parents’ knowledge.
