This year, three little words put a mainstream spotlight back on trans culture in an increasingly hostile political climate: protect the dolls.
The phrase, emblazoned on a T-shirt designed by Conner Ives to raise funds for Trans Lifeline, became a sensation. It sold by the thousands and decorated the chests of celebrities from Pedro Pascal to Addison Rae. But, for Fran Tirado, editor-in-chief of Them, the shirt was just that: a fashion statement, and only the bare minimum. In a moment when trans rights have been at best sidelined and at worst under direct attack, she saw a need for a different kind of coalition building. With Doll Invasion, she’s bringing raucous, vibrant trans right fundraisers and parties everywhere, from the shores of Fire Island to the art gallery. Think underground drag show meets buzzy beach bash, uniting trans and cis gay communities in joyful mayhem.
Doll Invasion’s latest venture? An online auction for Queer|Art and Advocates for Trans Equality packed full of art and tokens of queer legacy.
“We’re in a unique cultural moment where a new, massive subsect of the general population all of a sudden knows what a ‘doll’ is—and that wasn’t true the year before,” said Tirado. “This Queer|Art x Doll Invasion auction—and the new energy around our work right now—is a testament to something that goes beyond allyship. It’s not just, ‘I can help.’ It’s ‘let’s have fun together.’”
Looking to collect luminaries of contemporary queer art? You can bid on a beach bummy print by 2025 Guggenheim fellow Martine Gutierrez or a neon sculpture from Jeffrey Gibson, who represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Hooked on pop? Chappell Roan contributed a bandana she wore during her breakout performance at Governor’s Ball 2024 as well as a handful of signed records and magazines. Entertaining at home soon? Stay out of the kitchen this time and let Alison Roman cook for you and up to 10 guests. For a community fractured by the AIDS epidemic in the ’80s, the auction also includes pieces of queer history that preserve ties to the past like Zackary Drucker’s 2006 portrait of trans pioneer Mother Flawless Sabrina, along with memorabilia from the 1968 film The Queen, which she narrated.
“Flawless always said to me, ‘Let the ham out.’ I’m sure it was an old idiom from the 1940s or ’50s, but it meant let yourself go goofy. And this photograph, to me, is a reminder to let the ham out, to find the levity, to be the court jester, to be the rodeo clown, to be the person who diffuses tension with humor,” said Drucker. “I hope that whoever would like to provide a home for it, understands that it is also a totemic object and a little piece of the Flawless one.”
Although the auction includes cultural ephemera and contemporary literature–including a rare book by Candy Darling, annotated by Hari Nef and the new book from Kate Bornstein, author of the landmark 1994 collection Gender Outlaws: Men, Women, and the Rest of Us–it’s largely about reenvisioning trans identity and representation in the art. “Trans women have historically been relegated to the role of muse—our bodies treated as objects of fascination or inspiration—while so rarely being celebrated as the artists ourselves,” said Rio Sofia, co-executive director of Queer|Art. “We’ve started to see that change, but not enough. Doll Invasion shows how powerful trans women can be when we take it upon ourselves to change culture: reshaping the stage and demanding representation on our own terms.” Roan says it most succintly, “I will do anything for the dolls.”
Doll Invasion’s Fire Island party sets sail Aug. 23 and 24, while the online auction runs from now through Labor Day.
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