When President Trump attended a production of “Les Misérables” in Washington last week, there were four men dressed in women’s clothes seated in the audience. Yes, they put on a daring show of drag queen power at the Kennedy Center, knowing that Trump was coming to the play.

The drama before the play led to applause for the drag performers. Trump got none of the traditional standing ovation for a president.

That “in-your-face” moment for the gay rights movement comes after Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s board earlier this year, having condemned them for allowing drag performers on stage in the past. “No more drag shows or other anti-American propaganda” Trump wrote on social media in February.

And it comes as the Southern Baptist Convention voted last week to lobby for the return of laws banning gay marriage. Also, it comes after right-wing-inspired bans on library books dealing with homosexuality. And there is no forgetting Trump’s 2024 campaign advertising positioning former Vice President Kamala Harris as standing for transgender people: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”

As the Kennedy Center protest showed, public acts of resistance to Trump are rising, especially calls to fight for and assert........

© The Hill