N.H. official must pay $200K after drag queens settle defamation case
New Hampshire Rep. David Love (R) agreed to pay two drag queens $100,000 each and publicly apologize for remarks he made about them.


A drag performer in a black dress and blonde wig sits on a chair and reads from a sheet of paper, holding a microphone.
Robert Champion performs as his drag queen persona Monique Toosoon. (Courtesy of Robert Champion)

By Daniel Wu
August 26, 2024 at 11:08 p.m. EDT

A New Hampshire state representative will pay two drag queens $100,000 each in a settlement after they sued him for falsely calling one a sex offender and accusing another of acting inappropriately with children. ... Rep. David Love (R) made the comments in 2022 while introducing a bill to require library employees and volunteers to obtain background checks. He was driven to do so, he told his peers in the New Hampshire legislature, because of drag queens. Love said a performer at a 2021 drag event in Derry was dancing with children in a sexual manner and that another drag queen at a 2019 drag queen story hour in Nashua was a “convicted sex offender.”

Now the allegations — which Love reiterated despite the drag queens, local officials and community members contesting them — will cost him $200,000. ... Michael McMahon and Robert Champion, the New Hampshire drag queens who performed at the events Love described, sued Love for defamation. Last week they secured a settlement and a public retraction from the state representative, the Manchester Ink Link reported.

“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 and Michael McMahon aka Clara Divine of ‘rubbing butts’ with children,” Love said in his retraction. “... I have since learned that those assertions were completely false. I wish to publicly retract those statements and apologize to Robert and Michael.”

Champion, who still performs in drag, told The Washington Post that he hoped the case would discourage other local politicians from making unfounded allegations against drag queens. ... “When you say things that are that damaging or harmful about someone, they’re not going to just sit there and let it happen,” Champion said. ... Love and his attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

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By Daniel Wu
Daniel Wu is a reporter on The Washington Post's Morning Mix team. He joined The Post as an intern on the Metro desk in 2022 and previously worked for the Seattle Times and the San Jose Mercury News. Twitter