By Travis Bone

As drag queens increasingly come under attack by groups like the Proud Boys, The Parasol Patrol shares a lesson we could all learn from. It’s not a new idea; during the 1999 trials of Matthew Shepard’s killers, Angel Action volunteers donned wings to block Westboro Baptist Church’s hateful demonstrators. Similar tactics were employed at the 2016 Orlando Pulse shootings. In 2019, after an all-ages drag show in Colorado received threats, Marine Corps veteran Eli Bazan ran security while hundreds of volunteers with rainbow-colored umbrellas shielded the kids from hate. The group evolved from there. There’s no yelling; the Parasol Patrol just plays music and sings—once belting out the entire score to Frozen so loudly that kids didn’t even know protestors were there. As Bazan said, “Nothing makes a protestor more angry than to simply twirl your umbrella and smile.” This, says Travis Bone, is how we fight back as a community. Q