A popular LGBTIQ+ performer experienced three Sydneysiders’ true colours after she was refused service and later “pushed over’’ amid Australia’s most anticipated Pride festival.
Drag queen Ms Penny Tration had just finished hosting a bingo event and was attempting to hitch a ride out of the busy street when the “hateful acts” occurred.
In a video filmed by fan and Australian actress Suzan Mutesi, Ms Tration is seen talking to a taxi driver with another drag queen walking behind her before the vehicle speeds off down the street.
The performer is heard screaming “I just told you where we were going you f*****t” before throwing her Dior handbag at the car’s boot.
Shocked witnesses were seen comforting the drag queen as she explained to them why the driver wouldn’t take her as a passenger.
“He didn’t want to pick up drag queens,” Ms Tration claimed, which appeared to baffle onlookers given it was the middle of Mardi Gras weekend.
The video later outlined that the performer attempted to catch a cab for a second time for which she was unsuccessful.
Then in a dramatic twist, Ms Tration was captured lying on the road with her head propped up on the kerb after being “pushed” by a “homeless person”.
As bystanders rushed to her aid, the manager of a nearby bar started to administer first aid and the drag queen was later able to stand up in good spirits.
The video shared to TikTok received over 121,500 views with many left gobsmacked that this “ridiculous level of hate” was happening in Sydney’s streets.
“I can’t believe a Sydney icon as she is, is treated so badly,” one dismayed viewer said.
“She should not be thanking people for respecting her. It’s a given that she deserves as much respect as anybody else,” another supporter commented.
Meanwhile, other drag performers added they too had experienced similar rejection from taxi and rideshare drivers, with one commenter stating their makeup was a reason for the snubbing.
“The amount of times I’ve booked an Uber in drag and when they drive up and see me they just drive off and cancel the trip.” one comment read.
A second added: “I have asked an Uber driver one time about this, he said (it’s because) of the makeup stains some leave behind. (If) that’s their reason, that’s sad!”
Ms Tration appears to be doing well since the ordeal, posting to her Instagram story that she was “booked and blessed and catching Ubers not taxi’s this week”.
The Sydney performer is one of many drag queens getting their gear on in celebration of WorldPride, which is being hosted by Sydney for the first time.
In addition to the city’s renowned Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras events, a number of other festival events spanning across arts, sport, theatre, concerts, parties, First Nations and a human rights conference are being held until March 5 to celebrate diversity and pride.
This week’s events follow the 45th Mardi Gras parade on Saturday evening which saw Anthony Albanese as the first Australian Prime Minister to walk in the march.
More than 200 floats and 12,500 marchers paraded from Hyde Park to Moore Park in their finest outfits as tens of thousands of revellers watched on from the sidelines.
It was the first time the famous parade returned to its usual location on Oxford Street after Covid measures forced organisers to hold the event at the Sydney Cricket Ground for the past two years.