GOP Politician to Pay $200,000 for Defaming Drag Performers
A New Hampshire state representative who was sued by two drag queens for defaming them has settled the case for a whopping $200,000.
New Hampshire State Representative David Love (R-Derry) must pay two drag queens $100,000 each and publicly retract remarks he made in 2022, calling them a danger to children.
Robert Champion, who performs as drag queen Monique Toosoon, and Michael McMahon, who performs as Clara Devine, sued Love in April 2022, saying he had defamed them in remarks he made during a hearing on a bill he introduced calling for libraries to conduct background checks on employees and volunteers.
The performers contended that the bill — which Love cast as an effort to protect children from being in proximity to sex offenders — was an attempt to block Drag Queen Story Hour events from taking place.
Love sought to justify introducing the bill by claiming that “a convicted sex offender” had hosted the Drag Queen Teen Time program in Nashua, N.H., in 2019, comments widely understood to be referring to Champion.
He alleged that another performer, understood to be referring to McMahon, had been seen “rubbing butts with children” at a similar event in Derry, N.H.
Love repeated his accusations multiple times during that month, including making remarks opposing drag-related events at a Derry Town Council meeting on February 15, 2022, where he introduced himself as a state representative, imploring lawmakers to “leave the kids alone” and “let them grow up normal” by preventing them from being exposed to LGBTQ-related content.
According to the lawsuit, Love also told a reporter from Manchester Ink Link that he “hope[d] to God” that Champion wasn’t a sex offender, but claimed to have read that Champion was convicted of sex offenses in a newspaper — though he couldn’t remember which one.
“I don’t know if it was a Boston Herald or the Union Leader or what,” Love said at the time. “I’ve done more research on that and haven’t found [the article].”
He also claimed to have been “told by a couple [of] constituents” about the claim that McMahon was “rubbing butts” with children. Returning to his larger point, he asserted that neither Champion nor McMahon had been properly vetted before being allowed to perform in public.
Champion was, in fact, being subjected to extensive background checks at the time of his 2019 show because he and his husband were in the process of adopting their son, which he wouldn’t have been allowed to do had he been convicted of sex offenses.
Similarly, those in attendance at the June 2021 show at the Tupelo Music Hall in Derry claim that McMahon, as Clara Devine, never stepped down from the stage, which was three-and-a-half feet high and 20 feet away from children attending the event. Afterward, some attendees went backstage and took pictures with Clara, but none of their parents said that anything inappropriate happened.
Both performers accused Love of employing “serial lies and defamation” to push for banning drag-related children’s events and contended that his repetition of the false claims against them were based on “wanton, malicious and oppressive animus towards people who are not ‘normal.'”
The lawsuit argued that Love’s statements were published and repeated with reckless indifference or disregard of their consequences, including inciting hatred against gay men, particularly those who perform as drag queens.
According to Manchester Ink Link, Love later acknowledged that his statements were “erroneous” in a direct message to Champion on Facebook and told McMahon’s mother in a DM that his claims about her son’s alleged behavior were “incorrect.”
Love ultimately settled, agreeing to pay each performer $100,000 and publicly retract the comments that were proven false.
“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 ad Michael McMahon, aka Clara Devine, of ‘rubbing butts’ with children,” Love wrote in a Facebook post.
“I made those statements before the New Hampshire legislature. Those allegations were then repeated to Manchester Ink Link,” he continued. “I have since learned that those assertions were completely false. I wish to publicly retract those statements and apologize to Robert and Michael.”
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