{"id":1555404,"date":"2022-07-14T21:04:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T01:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1555404"},"modified":"2022-07-14T21:04:15","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T01:04:15","slug":"d-c-neighborhood-moves-to-rename-iconic-street-after-the-worlds-first-queen-of-drag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-c-neighborhood-moves-to-rename-iconic-street-after-the-worlds-first-queen-of-drag\/","title":{"rendered":"D.C. Neighborhood Moves To Rename Iconic Street After The World\u2019s First \u2018Queen Of Drag\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fd-c-neighborhood-moves-to-rename-iconic-street-after-the-worlds-first-queen-of-drag%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1555404&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A Washington, D.C. neighborhood is attempting to rededicate an iconic street in the city\u2019s Dupont Circle neighborhood in honor of the world\u2019s first drag queen.<\/p>\n<p>Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2B member Matthew Holden introduced a resolution to rededicate Swann Street, which spans about 5 city blocks in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of the nation\u2019s capital, according to local news outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/dcist.com\/story\/22\/07\/14\/dc-swann-street-william-dorsey-drag-queen\/\">DCist<\/a>. The resolution would name the street in honor of William Dorsey Swann, a former slave who lived in Washington and was the first person to self-identify as a \u201cqueen of drag.\u201d While the Commission\u2019s resolution will do nothing on its own, Holden is optimistic that the D.C. city council will support the effort.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe thought it would be exciting to dedicate Swann Street after William Dorsey Swann, a Black Washingtonian who was a pioneer in a lot of different ways,\u201d Holden told DCist.<\/p>\n<p>Holden also shared a <a href=\"https:\/\/dcgovict-my.sharepoint.com\/:w:\/g\/personal\/2b08_anc_dc_gov\/EVM7yt4xsOZGiah2_d8AN4gB-J1Er86gsY4bijYXHnNffw?rtime=WgrUfeVl2kg\">draft<\/a> of the resolution with the outlet. The resolution notes that Swann, who referred to himself as \u201cThe Queen of Drag,\u201d ran a secret social group called the \u201cHouse of Swann\u201d that organized balls for formerly enslaved men, where attendees would gather to \u201cdance and crossdress.\u201d The resolution also says that Swann was \u201cpersecuted by the authorities,\u201d citing his multiple arrests for \u201c\u2018impersonating a woman&#8217;\u201d and \u201c\u2018keeping a disorderly house.&#8217;\u201d It also says that he sought a pardon from President Grover Cleveland, and champions him as \u201cthe first American on record to pursue legal action in defense of LGBT rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The resolution thus urges the D.C. city council and Mayor Muriel Bowser to support, pass, and sign into law legislation that would rededicate Swann Street in honor of William Dorsey Swann. \u201cRededicating Swann Street in honor of William Dorsey Swann would honor the history of the Striver\u2019s Section Historic District as a Black Neighborhood and Dupont Circle\u2019s History as the epicenter of Washington\u2019s LGBT Community,\u201d the draft says.<\/p>\n<p>Holden told DCist that the Mayor\u2019s office has expressed support for the effort. He expressed hope that the city council would pass legislation rededicating the street, and would add a nameplate or a plaque that could tell some of Swann\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>The current namesake of the street is purported to be Thomas Swann, who served as Mayor of Baltimore from 1856-1860, and then Governor of Maryland from 1865-1869. He also served in the House of Representatives for 10 years, from 1869 to 1879. As mayor, he was a member of the nativist \u201cKnow-Nothing\u201d party, and enacted policies allowing for the persecution of blacks. But when he was sworn in as governor in 1865, he opposed slavery and voiced support for free labor for blacks.<\/p>\n<p>William Dorsey Swann was born into slavery in 1858 in Hancock, Maryland. He moved to D.C. some time after Emancipation, and began hosting drag balls in the 1880s and 90s. The balls, which were actually called \u201cdrags\u201d at the time, were conducted in secret; black men would dress up in dresses and dance dances like the cakewalk. Attendees used the term \u201cqueen\u201d to address the leaders of the balls.<\/p>\n<p>The resolution also comes just one day after a petition to replace a statue of Russian empress Catherine the Great in Odessa, Ukraine, with a statue of an American <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/ukrainian-president-must-consider-petition-to-replace-statue-of-empress-catherine-the-great-in-odessa-with-gay-porn-star\">gay porn star<\/a>, crossed the legal threshold for it to be automatically sent to President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s desk for consideration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Washington, D.C. neighborhood is attempting to rededicate an iconic street in the city\u2019s Dupont Circle neighborhood in honor of the world\u2019s first drag queen. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2B member Matthew Holden introduced a resolution to rededicate Swann Street, which spans about 5 city blocks in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of the nation\u2019s capital, according &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":1555446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1555404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1555404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1555446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1555404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1555404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1555404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}