Jim: The second year that we did Wyoming AIDS Walk, we recognized that, gosh, putting on this event is a lot of work. The atmosphere at the walk and everything was very fun and upbeat—we had music and the first year we had a drag queen MC on the main stage, so it was a fun time—but we wanted to do something more. Another event, something as a thank you, something that was really designed around pure fun, but where we could still maybe raise a little extra money, just do something extra, but also for it to be something fun for the organizers to let their hair down. 

And what we landed on was—we discovered an event that was going on down in Fort Collins. It was hosted by Wyoming Equality and they were doing it as a fundraiser. They had connected with a couple of drag queens out of Colorado, and at one of the gay bars in Fort Collins, they were hosting Drag Queen Bingo. And we went down and attended because it sounded like a lot of fun. And it was a riot. We had the time of our lives, it was just amazing. We said, “This is it. We need to do this with AIDS Walk. This is a perfect thing for us to do the night after the walk.” 

The first year, I want to say we raised something like $800 at Drag Queen Bingo. We reserved the ballroom, as they called it—I think ballroom might have been overselling it a bit, at the time it was the Ramada on the very south end of town—and we went and decorated it, and the same drag queens came up from Colorado. Chamblee Tucker and Miss Alexandra Winters were our drag queens. That first bingo up here. And it was a great time. We had a blast. We raised a little bit of money. We just had so much fun that night. 

At the time, he was the chief of police, Dave O'Malley was there and his wife was there. They'd helped us as organizers and were helping with the walk and everything. We just had so much fun that night. We ended up going back to Dave and Jennifer's house after bingo that night, with our drag queens, and having an after party there. We ordered pizza and when the delivery guy showed up, one of the drag queens was like, “Oh, I am so answering the door.” And so Alex went and answered the door and got the kind of deer in headlights look that we anticipated from the pizza delivery guy, because here is a very clearly a little bit haggard-looking drag queen. It was the end of the night.

And what was the best part about that was there was,the rumor started floating around town the next day that the chief of police had been in drag at his house and had ordered a pizza. So somehow the rumor got back that it was Dave who was in drag. So that just made it all the more fun for the rest of us.

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.