N.H. official must pay $200Gs after drag queens settle case

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A New Hampshire state representative will pay two drag queens $100,000 each in a settlement after they sued him for falsely calling one a sex offender and accusing another of acting inappropriately with children.

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Rep. David Love (R) made the comments in 2022 while introducing a bill to require library employees and volunteers to obtain background checks. He was driven to do so, he told his peers in the New Hampshire legislature, because of drag queens. Love said a performer at a 2021 drag event in Derry was dancing with children in a sexual manner and that another drag queen at a 2019 drag queen story hour in Nashua was a “convicted sex offender.”

Now the allegations — which Love reiterated despite the drag queens, local officials and community members contesting them — will cost him $200,000.

Michael McMahon and Robert Champion, the New Hampshire drag queens who performed at the events Love described, sued Love for defamation. Last week they secured a settlement and a public retraction from the state representative, the Manchester Ink Link reported.

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“After being provided with inaccurate information, information that I failed to verify, I publicly accused Robert Champion aka Monique Toosoon of being a registered sex offender and Michael McMahon aka Clara Divine of ‘rubbing butts’ with children,” Love said in his retraction. “… I have since learned that those assertions were completely false. I wish to publicly retract those statements and apologize to Robert and Michael.”

Champion, who still performs in drag, told The Washington Post that he hoped the case would discourage other local politicians from making unfounded allegations against drag queens.

“When you say things that are that damaging or harmful about someone, they’re not going to just sit there and let it happen,” Champion said.

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Love and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

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Love, who represents the Rockingham 13 district in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, made the comments in February 2022 while introducing a bill that would have required prospective employees and volunteers of public libraries to undergo a background check.

Champion, who has performed in drag as Monique Toosoon for over 20 years, had hosted a “Drag Queen Teen Time” event at the Nashua Public Library in 2019. He said he faced death threats and protests before the event that included poetry and a question-and-answer session about performing as a drag queen. A New Hampshire-based Christian advocacy group encouraged residents to write to the library in protest of the event.

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Champion said he was accustomed to protesters at drag queen events. But he was shocked several years later when friends alerted him to Love’s comments casting controversy again on the Nashua show and accusing him and McMahon, a friend and fellow drag performer, of sex crimes.

Champion, McMahon and several local officials denied Love’s allegations, the Manchester Ink Link reported. Champion is not listed on sex offender registries and has never been otherwise accused of being a sex offender, he said. Pressed by a Manchester Ink Link reporter, Love said he read about Champion’s alleged conviction in a newspaper several years ago but couldn’t remember which one.

Love again repeated his accusations against Champion in a contentious Derry council meeting that month, according to the drag queens’ lawsuit and the Manchester Ink Link, where several council members accused Love of lying. Two days later, Love messaged McMahon’s mother and Champion on Facebook to acknowledge that his statements about the drag queens were incorrect, according to their lawsuit.

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Love’s library bill did not leave committee and was unanimously deemed “inexpedient to legislate,” according to state records.

Champion said the private apologies from Love felt inauthentic and insufficient amid growing conservative hostility toward drag performers and their events. About 160 anti-LGBTQ+ threats and protests opposing drag events were reported in the United States between 2022 and April 2023, advocacy group GLAAD reported last year. In one instance, a Tulsa doughnut store that hosted a drag event was firebombed.

“Who knows what will happen with the political climate with drag queens right now?” Champion said.

Champion and McMahon sued Love a few months after Love made his allegations. With their settlement, they join a slew of drag performers who have successfully sued over false accusations of sexual misconduct. In May, a jury awarded Idaho drag performer Eric Posey more than $1 million after a conservative blogger falsely accused him of exposing himself to children. A U.K. judge in January ordered a conservative commentator to pay a British-Canadian drag queen Colin Seymour around $200,000 in a libel case after falsely calling him a pedophile, Deadline reported.

Champion and McMahon said that they hope local officials will think twice before making similar accusations in the future, and that their lawsuit against Love will reach voters this fall.

“We plan on sticking with our guns until this election is over, trying to do everything we can to make sure he doesn’t get reelected,” Champion said.

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