Joan Jett Blakk: The Drag Queen Who Ran for President

LGBTQ&A

Jeffrey Masters

Society & Culture

4.7 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2024

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joan Jett Blakk (a.k.a. Terence Alan Smith) talks about her historic 1992 presidential campaign, why the AIDS crisis influenced her run, and what it was like to be an out gay teenager in the '70s.

"They still ask the same questions that they asked in the '90s. 'Drag queens run for president in America?' I'm like, 'Well, they told us anybody could run for president. Anybody.' So, okay, we'll make them stick to that word."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Who would I like to see as president? Why, myself, of course. And who am I? Well, I'm Joan Jett Black,
0:08.8	Queer Nation's candidate for president in 1992. That's right, we're going to put a drag queen in the White House.
0:16.3	Okay, picture this. It is smack dab in the middle of the AIDS crisis. Homophobia is abound,
0:22.6	and the only news stories you ever see about queer people are profoundly negative.
0:28.6	Then Joan Jet Black enters the picture.
0:31.6	First by running for mayor in Chicago, and then eventually by running for president.
0:36.6	This was the 1992 election with Clinton and Bush, and Joan's candidacy running as a drag
0:42.7	queen created a spectacle, which was the point entirely.
0:47.9	Joan was a part of queer nation.
0:50.2	This was an early activist group known for their edgy, often confrontational tactics.
0:55.4	I mean, just look at their name, right?
0:57.2	The word queer in the 90s, it was just a tiny infant on its way to being reclaimed by the community.
1:04.7	Joan Jet Black's candidacy forced queer issues into the limelight in this beautifully absurd way.
1:12.4	I haven't been listening to the television, but hopefully queer nation's name is out there
1:16.9	and people are going, who the fuck is that?
1:21.4	We could have queer people running for president, queer people running for governor,
1:25.3	and queer people running for the Supreme Court.
1:29.1	Joan Jet Black, aka Terrence Allen Smith, is here to talk about her historic run, as well as everything
1:35.1	that led up to that moment. And I should say, too, that her story is made into a play by Terrell
1:40.7	Alvin McCraney. Terrell is famous, of course, her writing and winning an Oscar for the movie Moonlight.
1:46.2	And the play was called Ms. Black for president,
1:48.8	and it premiered a few years ago
	...

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