Miss Kentucky Hannah Edelen will spin the bingo ball cage at a rescheduled Drag Bingo event in Fort Thomas on June 29. To be held in the Mess Hall in Tower Park, the event will start at 8 p.m. after the Wednesday Farmer’s Market.
Edelen, a social studies teacher from Covington, was recently crowned Miss Kentucky and will represent the state at the Miss America Pageant.
The event, originally scheduled as a city-sponsored Health and Wellness program, was canceled suddenly. Officials said the event was entertainment and did not fit into their health-education focused programming. The city administrator invited organizers to rent the city’s Mess Hall as privately sponsored event. Some residents questioned the decision to cancel and expressed frustration that it made their city appear unwelcoming.
Community member Pamela Spang Schultz stepped in and organized a new event to be held on the original date but starting at a later time slot. Original emcee Ron Padgett and musician Jack Johnson both agreed to return for the newly scheduled event.
“It’s about inclusivity and making everyone feel welcome. I’m a huge fan of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Schultz said. “I want kids that might identify differently to know that they are welcome and matter, and they can’t just be pushed aside because it makes folks uncomfortable sometimes. I want them to know they are free to be who they want to be, and I don’t happen to think that freedoms only count when you agree with them.”
A parent of an incoming freshman at Highlands High School, Schultz also is running for a seat on the Fort Thomas Independent School Board.
The event will benefit the Human Rights Campaign, a national organization supporting LGBTQ rights, and a local nonprofit, known as NISE. Started by two Highlands High School educators, counselor Trinity Walsh and teacher Elise Carter, Northern Kentucky Inclusive Students in Education (NISE) offers an after-school type program open to high school juniors and seniors across the region interested in discussing and learning about current events and issues.
Schultz said she is excited for the event. “After the last two-and-a-half years, people just need to laugh and see each other again and learn how to be human again.”