Divina de Campo wore a protest dress to parliament. (Getty Images)
Divina de Campo made waves with a shocking protest dress while attending an LGBT History Month event in parliament just days after Rishi Sunak’s derogatory anti-trans joke.
When the drag performer and singer was first invited to an LGBT History Month reception in Parliament, she debated attending at all.
Anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has been rampant within Westminster for years now, but as of late, it has taken a turn for the worst.
Just last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sparked widespread outrage and disgust when he made a trans joke in front of Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey.
While most condemned Sunak’s comment, for which the PM has refused to apologise, LGBTQ+ advocates have pointed out that the same MPs and media figures who criticised him for making the joke have a history of spreading anti-trans rhetoric, either in Parliament or in the paper.
In the end, Divina de Campo decided she would attend the parliament reception – but in a dress that was sure to turn heads.
On Wednesday (7 February), she rocked up to the event in a red wig and a black and white dress that resembled a crumpled-up newspaper.
Upon closer inspection, the dress is covered in real headlines that have been written about LGBTQ+ people in the past decade or so, as well as LGBTQ+ hate crime statistics.
Speaking to Attitude about how the protest dress went down, de Campo recalled: “Lots of people commented on the dress, and were like: ‘This is amazing’ and then I said: ‘Read it’. And they said: ‘Oh OK… wow… OK. That kind of response.”
She continued: “And I think this is a problem in Westminster; those people don’t think that words have power; they don’t think that words have any real-world consequences. Because it’s all just a game.
“But it’s not a game; it’s real life for the rest of us. What is said in that chamber leads to real-world consequences for us.”
De Campo explained that she wanted to “take the words that MPs and ministers” had carelessly put out into the world and put it back to them in a piece of art.
The drag star received heaps of praise for her bold outfit, with fans and followers congratulating and commending her for so boldly standing up for the LGBTQ+ community in a room full of MPs and ministers.
But, while she stood in Westminster, shocking political figures with her outfit when they got a closer look, de Campo says she felt “conflicted” about being there.
“We were in this lovely room with all this gorgeousness around us and then there’s people in the country who are starving and can’t afford to heat their homes. And we’re drinking Champagne and going ‘rah rah aren’t we fabulous’,” she told the magazine.
“But I set out what I wanted to do. I spoke to quite a few MPs and I raised all of my concerns regarding anti-LGBT hate with all of them. And my protest dress was and will hopefully continue to be a reminder of the impact that harmful anti-LGBT rhetoric has on people.”