Klobuchar Reschedules Smithsonian Hearing for Juneteenth Eve

Secretary Lonny Bunch is under fire for the institution's crackdown on drag events.

Senate Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar told Capitol Press on Tuesday that a postponed hearing to question Smithsonian Secretary Lonny Bunch is now scheduled for June 18. The hearing had originally been scheduled for April 9.

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Pride Month Drag Crackdown

Bunch has faced a wave of scrutiny from the queer community after The New Republic reported on April 16 that the Smithsonian is conducting an internal crackdown on drag shows.

A spokesperson for the Smithsonian disputed the report, claiming that drag events, which have been a popular part of the institution’s programming throughout Bunch’s tenure as secretary, were merely under review, not canceled.

Seven weeks later, no drag performances have been added to the Smithsonian’s calendars of events for any of the institution’s twenty public facilities, which includes eleven iconic museums on the National Mall.

Smithsonian spokesperson Linda St. James won’t say if drag events will be added for Pride Month, which began on Saturday and runs until June 30. If not, this will be the first Pride Month in recent memory without drag performances at the Smithsonian.

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Bunch’s Last Congressional Hearing

The crackdown comes after Bunch testified before the House Administration Committee on December 12 that he would “look into” the performances that have been a popular part of museum programming for years.

Bunch’s statement came in response to questioning from Representative Stephanie Bice, an Oklahoma Republican, who asked at the House hearing last December how drag events advance the Smithsonian’s mission. “I think it’s not appropriate to expose children to drag shows,” Bunch replied. “I’m surprised, and I will look into that.”

What followed internally, according to Smithsonian staffers, has been a “drag audit,” in which popular performances from previous years have been cataloged and, in effect, banned for 2024.

Bunch’s crackdown on drag performances this year marks a sudden departure from programming long supported by the Smithsonian Pride Alliance, an influential group of queer museum workers and supporters formed in 1988 in response to the AIDS crisis.

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A History of Drag Under Bunch

A review by The New Republic found the Smithsonian has hosted at least eight drag performances during Bunch’s tenure, which will begin its fifth year in May. None of the events were marketed to children, while most were held in conjunction with Pride Week in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The last time a drag event was hosted by a Smithsonian facility was a free show on June 23, 2023, at the Diker Pavilion, a New York City facility of the National Museum of the American Indian. The event was held in conjunction with NYC Pride Week under the theme “Strength in Solidarity” and featured drag performances by Landa Lakes, Lady Shug, Sage Chanell, and Papi Churro —four Indigenous drag artists representing Chickasaw, Diné (Navajo), Shawnee, Ponca, Otoe, Lakota Sioux, Nahua, and Coahuiltecan ancestry, according to the event web page.

A 2021 Smithsonian magazine article featured drag artist Geo Soctomah Neptune discussing the intersection of nonbinary (“two-spirit”) Americans and Indigenous culture. The magazine also featured at least two dozen images of drag performers from Appalachia to Tel Aviv in its nineteenth annual photography contest last year.

Several drag events were held at the Smithsonian during the Trump administration, including a happy hour at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in New York featuring Horchata, a co-founder of the annual Brooklyn drag festival; a performance in conjunction with the Smithsonian Latino Museum featuring Big Freedia, a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, a popular television show in drag culture; and a ball at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden hosted by Pussy Noir, a “local icon” of D.C. drag culture, according to the Smithsonian website.