OKEQ-Bartlesville's Drag Queens: Who's Behind the Makeup & How Did We Get Here?

July 18, 2023

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In this article from The V1SUT Vantage:

• What’s This Really All About? Public Drag, Activism, Freedoms & Threats

• Full Transparency Required for Anyone Seeking Access to Children, Except Drag Queens

• Mariah Paige AKA Mr. Chad Woods

• Men Behind Makeup Reveal How We Got Here

• It Wasn’t Easy Being Young Chad Woods

• What Mariah Paige Has to Say

• What Chad Woods Has to Say

• The Pull to be Mariah too Strong to Keep His Cover

• Weak Men “Protecting the Herd”: City Attorney, City Manager and Three Councilmen Fail to Step Up for Children

What’s This Really All About? Public Drag, Activism, Freedoms & Threats

Those promoting the sexualization of children at drag queen performances claim this type of entertainment is an art form involving some appreciable talent that benefits and lifts community standards and positively exposes children to a more diverse populous. At the same time, sex activists threaten litigation should any community attempt to restrict transvestite performances or the age of their audiences, claiming a direct threat to the performers’ constitutionally protected right to free speech.

Clearly, the founding father’s enshrined the right to speak freely as a political protection against a tyrannical government, not a tool for breaking local obscenity laws.

From the earliest chapter of Bartlesville, Oklahoma’s battle to push back on last year’s drag performances in the presence of children within Unity Square, the community’s most public venue, activists have promised to sue should the city council put any limits on public drag shows.

OKEQ-Bartlesville’s promotion of 2022 drag shows. Publicly available on group’s FB page.

Last October, in the wake of a popular, public petition requesting the ban of all adult-oriented entertainment in the town’s public spaces, Morgan Lawrence-Hayes from the pride event’s organizing group, a chapter of Tulsa-based Oklahomans for Equality (OKEQ), addressed the city council with a promise of legal action should the “freedom” of these drag performers be threatened.

Morgan Lawrence-Hayes (president OKEQ-Bartlesville, LGBT activist chapter) embraces Rhonda Hudson (executive director Ray of Hope, local group serving sexually abused children). Publicly available on OKEQ FB page.

After stating her name and local address, a requirement to speak at the town’s council meetings, Lawrence-Hayes summed up her comments as follows:

“Lastly, I would like to remind our city leaders that any action taken to limit the ability of the LGBTQIA+ community to hold the pride event and drag show so long as we abide by the community standards would be considered discrimination. Should this happen, it would force OKEQ to respond with equally appropriate legal action to protect our freedom. That legal action would not only be costly to the city and to our taxpayers but divisive to our community.”

At the time Lawrence-Hayes made these comments, public video had already proven the drag show held during the previous month did not “abide by the community standards”, making any promise of better behavior during future events meaningless.

Further, if these activists truly believe walking awkwardly in high heels while lip synching to Shania Twain in cross-dressing lingerie constitutes protectable free speech, why is someone like Morgan Lawrence-Hayes standing before the Bartlesville city council making such a threat and not the actual performers whose rights are purportedly being threatened?

For one, most Bartlesville Pride 2022 performers were not locals. More to the point, standing for themselves publicly would require the open identification of the actual men behind the make-up, and that would never do. The separation of the drag queen’s persona from his real identity successfully masks his motivations.

Well men, if you’re going to publicly parade in front of other people’s children in women’s panties on a very public (and publicly-funded) stage, then use an out-of-town activist group to threaten the community with a lawsuit for objecting, residents have a right to know who you, as a publicly promoted figure, really are.

Full Transparency Required for Anyone Seeking Access to or Audience with Children, Except Drag Queens

What would happen if an adult applied for a position as a teacher, daycare worker, children’s hospital volunteer, YMCA camp counselor or elementary school janitor in a disguise and using a fictitious name? That applicant would be swiftly weeded out by background checks.

Yet somehow, the public has been pressured to think of those in drag reading to or performing before children as only a performance persona and not an adult male of unknown identity. Given the increasing number of arrests of men seeking access to children through drag events, communities and parents have a responsibility to know who’s behind the makeup.

Recent examples of arrests related to drag queens and events include a children’s court judge (center), a social worker (bottom left), an elementary school teacher (top right), and a trafficker/kidnapper of runaway boys celebrated on local news (bottom right),

Today, let’s begin with performer Mariah Paige. This peek behind the drag stage curtain provides significant insight as to how the heartland of America has unexpectedly found itself battling to protect the innocence of children.

Mariah Paige AKA Mr. Chad Woods

On September 10th, 2022, a drag queen by the stage name of Mariah Paige stripped his longer covering on the main stage at Unity Square to reveal fishnet stockings and a see-through top with only silver-star pasties covering his fake, female breasts. He then moved into the audience to more closely interact with the children of Bartlesville under the rainbow colored lights of Price Tower, the town’s most iconic landmark. All in the name of pride, of course.

Drag queen “Mariah Page” performs at OKEQ’s Bartlesville Pride 2022.

As with nearly all drag queens, Mariah Paige and his inner self, a 41-year-old man named Chad Woods, are presented to the public as two, entirely different people. Also typical of the world of drag, Paige and Woods each have their own social media. Woods often claims he, as if a separate human, is “with” Mariah Paige, not that he actually IS Mariah Page. Is this a sign of mental illness or an attempt to conceal his drag identity? The reader can decide.

By day, Chad Woods is a heterosexually married grandfather:

Publicly available from FB page of Chad Woods.

By night, Mariah Paige is a very raunchy and regular performer at gay bars around the state. Woods proudly posts one such performance to YouTube as though he is an audience member watching Mariah Paige dance to a Khia song. The lyrics state, in part:

“Lick it good, suck this p***y like you should, right now, my neck, my back, lick my p***y and my crack.”

Be warned, prior to viewing, the performance content and remaining song lyrics are equally offensive:

It’s difficult to imagine how such a performance could be seriously categorized as valued free speech or be made child-friendly just in time for the pride festival in the town square of any community.

If the cognitive dissonance concerning a seemingly heterosexual family man moonlighting as Ms. Mariah Paige is causing doubt about this dual identity, the reader may need to take a moment for a tattoo check:

All photos publicly available on FB page of Chad Woods or Mariah Paige.

With the reality of this drag queen’s true identity verified, it’s time to gain a better understanding of what motivated this man to take his very adult performances in front of children.

Men Behind Makeup Reveal How We Got Here

Why would a grown, married man wish to be a drag queen and to take a vulgar nightclub act before children? Why is the public drag trend sweeping across middle America? Chad Woods’ background provides possible answers.

This publication has no desire to drag anyone’s personal history or childhood trauma into the public spotlight. What is known about Woods’ history from public records and his own public postings will be shared only briefly as evidence of a historically observable trend:

A society that does not protect its children is destined to descend into accelerating cultural degradation as maladaptive patterns become generational and the resulting abandonment of taboos and long-held behavioral norms brings either a complete collapse or a harsh reset.

It Wasn’t Easy Being Young Chad Woods

Based on criminal records, we know Woods’ childhood involved regular exposure to the societal plagues of drug use that began ravaging communities of every size in places like Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri beginning in the early 1990s. His family was impacted by both the prescription and illicit drug epidemics.

Heartland epicenter of meth crisis. Source: DEA

Other criminal and behavioral patterns consistent with addiction affected Woods’ upbringing, primarily related to his father. Charges and cases associated with the family include drug possession (meth, cocaine, marijuana) some with intent to distribute, tampering with RX labels, evading police, falsely impersonating another, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, indebtedness, foreclosure, driving under the influence, and driving with a suspended license. Despite a string of domestic violence cases and protective orders, his parents did not legally part until Woods was an adult.

The ongoing methamphetamine epidemic has ravaged children in the nation’s center in a particularly heinous way.

Known affects of meth include hyper-sexualization during use (article from Johns Hopkins). Children of addicted parents are at a significantly greater risk of sexual abuse. The cycle then accelerates generationally, as sexually abused children are more likely to become meth users. Second verse, same as the first, or even worse.

Woods bonded his father out of jail related to felony cocaine possession charges in 2005 and appears to have followed his father into meth use and distribution. He and his now spouse, in January of 2014, were arrested related to meth and marijuana possession with intent to distribute.

From publicly available court records at OSCN.

Woods’ adult record in Oklahoma also includes bogus check charges (2007, 2015 and 2016) and multiple cases related to indebtedness (2008-2021), behaviors often associated with drug use. His social media suggests continued marijuana use, though Woods appears to be regularly employed and living in a stable environment since his arrest in 2014. His Mariah Paige persona appears to have surfaced publicly in 2020.

Did Woods trade addiction for drag in an ongoing battle against his own childhood trauma? Mariah Paige initially performed in adult-only venues. And now, Woods is increasingly taking his hyper-sexualized performances before children at pride events. One can’t help but wonder if Woods wishes the adults in his life had done more to protect his innocence as a child. Paying it forward isn’t always a good thing.

What Mariah Paige Has to Say

Mariah Paige is not just a persona that Woods washes off after a performance. Paige has an entire life as a drag queen and is highly connected to other cross-dressing performers. It is within this bizarre world that he posted the video below of a child devouring an undeniable phallic symbol to the drag queen’s Facebook page:

Publicly available from FB page of Mariah Paige.

A consistent lack of emotional and verbal control is displayed on Paige’s Facebook page, including when a “punk ass mutha fu&&” failed to send the wig he’d ordered online:

Publicly available from FB page of Mariah Paige.

What Chad Woods Has to Say

The highly sexualized material and lack of emotional control flow whether Woods is in drag or playing himself. Woods’ social media, as himself, reveals his interpersonal conflicts, frequently within the work environment, are often publicly posted with anger and vulgarity:

Publicly available from FB page of Chad Woods.

Brash references to sexuality are common on Woods’ page, which remains public:

Compilation of posts from FB page of Chad Woods.

In much of the world of alternate sexualities, “obscene” is defined differently. Lewd content is not labeled and therefore, does not exist. Community standards are whatever they say they are, and those opposing are haters, homophobes, transphobics…. Love is love, anything goes and it must be public. Woods is observably part of that group. One has to wonder if the adults within Woods’ childhood world failed to protect him from early exposures to distorted and adult sexuality.

The Pull to be Mariah too Strong to Keep His Cover

Now and again, Woods appears unable to maintain the separation, seeking for the world to know he’s behind the Mariah Paige mask. Woods is not like most men who head for the garage for auto repair or other manly hobbies. In the publicly posted TikTok video below, using a garage door as his backdrop, Woods kicks away a high-heeled shoe to reveal his alternate persona.

Publicly available reel from Chad Woods’ Facebook.

Again, observably on the same night, Woods tries out another complete Mariah Paige look to the same song, Megan Thee Stallion’s “Girls in the Hood”. Partial lyrics:

“F*ck bein' good, I'm a bad bitch (Ah)
I'm sick of motherf*ckers tryna tell me how to live (F*ck y'all)
Wack hoes hate under my pictures on the 'Gram (Ugh)
Bitch, you better hope I never run across your man, uh”

Another concerning observation from these TikTok videos reveals the visible wounds on Woods, which appear on both sides of the neck:

Publicly available from FB page of Chad Woods.

Are these wounds the result of a lifestyle choice, a skin condition, an accident, tattoos gone bad, a cry for help or something else? Their cause is unclear, though Woods isn’t making any effort to hide them as he publicly posts his videos.

If you’re hurting for the child Woods was, you have a heart. If you’re not concerned about him repeating the generational pattern of sexualizing children, this time through public drag, you may not have a brain.

Weak Men “Protecting the Herd”: City Attorney, City Manager and Three Councilmen Fail to Step Up for Children

Policy makers seem unaware that it’s entirely possible to have compassion for former victims of child sexual abuse and exposure to adult sexuality without condoning or allowing the infliction of their trauma on a subsequent generation. When the Bartlesville city council voted to allow OKEQ to again hold their drag show on public property (September 9, 2023), this time indoors with no restrictions on the content of the performances or the ages of attendees, they ensured another generation’s exposure to distorted and damaging content.

Yet, city attorney Jess Kane admitted that he and city manager Mike Bailey made no attempt to restrict the drag portion of Bartlesville Pride 2023 to adults only as they ‘negotiated’ the terms of OKEQ’s agreement with the city. Watch Bailey’s idea of “Protecting the Herd” from two years ago.

While quick to cover all kids’ faces for a year, during negotiations with OKEQ, they avoided even broaching the citizens’ #1 concern…the sexualization of children.

Bartlesville City Council meeting (April 3, 2023) see Item 10, timestamp beginning 36:59. City Attorney made no attempt to protect children.

During the April 3rd council meeting, Kane made a lengthy speech chastising the packed chamber of citizens for not praising his negotiating skills and expressed being “miffed” at the community multiple times.

After Kane’s diatribe, councilman Trevor Dorsey publicly asked Kane if, during negotiations, there were any discussions about limiting the age of attendees at drag performances under the agreement:

Kane’s response: “Additional concessions, I just don’t think they’d a been agreed to.”

Translation: Kane and Bailey didn’t even try to keep kids safe. They didn’t even ask. Weak men make hard times.

Instead, as part of his crack negotiations and admittedly by following the lead of Joe Biden and his current administration, Kane recommended enacting special protections for those of alternate sexualities within the city’s housing policies (Item 11) because “they (OKEQ) asked for it”. He sees no way activists will ever misuse such a status or project those protections within other aspects of life in Bartlesville.

Councilmembers Trevor Dorsey and Billie Roane voted against the agreement allowing drag for kids and the proposed housing protections based on sexual attraction. Nevertheless, due to the voting of Mayor Dale Copeland, Vice Mayor Jim Curd Jr, and Loren Roszel, both measures passed.

Healthy child development is a one-time opportunity. In the battle to protect childhood innocence, there are no do-overs. It appears Chad Woods/Mariah Paige has chosen the increasingly common shift from child victim to ‘performance’ perpetrator, and city leadership is supportive of the move.

Do you really know who’s behind the makeup in your community?