She would ask him for sources to discuss issues affecting the LGBTQ community, and he occasionally appeared on Fox 10 broadcasts.
They eventually struck up a friendship, he said. He said Lake and her coworkers would sometimes stop by the bar's weekly drag show after the broadcast, and he recognized her from watching the news. Stevens said he first met Lake in the late 1990s, when he performed regularly at a gay bar near the KSAZ studios, where Lake was an evening anchor. "I was just personally offended by that tweet," Stevens said. But when she came after drag queens, he said, "this hypocrisy really bothered me." He told The Associated Press on Monday that he stayed in touch with Lake and privately defended her even as she ran a far-right campaign that he disagreed with. I've been in her home, and I have her private phone number and her private Facebook account." Stevens responded on social media the next morning: "I've performed for her. Let's bring back the basics: God, Guns & Glory." They seek to disarm Americans and militarize our Enemies. "They took down our Flag and replaced it with a rainbow. "They kicked God out of schools and welcomed the Drag Queens," Lake tweeted on Friday night. It also fuels a persistent criticism of Lake's conversion from Barack Obama donor to Donald Trump conservative. The dispute between the gubernatorial frontrunner and the prominent drag queen drew national attention and put Lake on the defensive two weeks before early voting begins ahead of Arizona's Aug. He posted photos on his social media accounts of Lake posing with drag queens and screenshots of his conversations with her. Richard Stevens, who performs as Barbra Seville, said Lake, a former television news anchor, regularly attended drag shows and even hired him to dress as Marilyn Monroe at a private party and brought her young daughter. PHOENIX - Kari Lake, the frontrunner in the Republican primary for Arizona governor, condemned the growing cultural clout of drag queens, jumping into the latest social grievance taking hold on the right.īut her comments were quickly criticized over the weekend by one of the most popular drag performers in Phoenix, who says Lake is a hypocrite who frequented his performances.