At the Third Annual Doll Invasion, Trans Joy Was the Revolution

So the Doll Invasion is not just a place of safety, it’s also a place of bliss, and actively so. “Fun is a critical need. It’s too easy, actually, to relegate trans people and the trans community, especially in a year like this one, as a cause,” says Fran Tirado, founder and Overall Mother of the House of Doll Invasion and editor-in-chief of Them. “Trans people are so much more than a cause. We actually throw really fabulous parties. We have great taste. We’re all hot and we’re all cunt.”

And then, on a more serious note: “We’re in a unique cultural moment where—it’s always been true, but particularly right now—they’re trying to kill us, and I don’t say that in a hyperbolic way,” Tirado notes. “But fun never dies, and what we create never dies, and trans cultural production never dies, and that’s why we do what we do.”

Trans advocates have long worked toward having an equitable presence in the Pines specifically, which has developed a reputation for muscular cisgender gay men and a not-so-subtle whiff of exclusion. “Invasion is the key word here,” says fashion designer Willie Norris, Doll Invasion’s creative director. While there’s no doubting Fire Island’s beauty, Norris adds, for many it’s been rendered inaccessible, in terms of both cost and culture. This is something the Doll Invasion team is working to change. (The theme of this year’s event is “Wet Hot Transexual Summer.”) As the ferry docks, a hot pink sign shouts, “Welcome, Dolls!”

Doll Invasion draws inspiration from the Invasion of the Pines, an event also challenging the Pines’ status quo. When beloved Cherry Grove drag queen and trans woman Teri Warren was denied entry to the Blue Whale, a venue in the Pines, for being in drag in 1976, it shook her community. In response, activist and drag artist Thom Hansen, a.k.a. Panzi, gathered his friends to invade the Pines in drag on July 4, 1976, and take up space on Teri’s behalf. Guests loved it, much to the chagrin of the owner. From then on, boarding a ferry in Cherry Grove in dazzling drag before arriving in Pines became an enduring tradition.

“I feel like this is the year where Doll Invasion shows up as a bona fide institution, proper organization, and tradition within the island as an homage to the history of the Drag Invasion back in the ’70s,” Tirado says. “As Ita [Segev], our fundraising captain, often says, Doll Invasion is putting the T into the 120-year LGB history of this island as a safe haven for queer people. But this year in particular, I feel like we have totally, in our standing, decided that this will be every single year and must be a part of the island’s history.”