Mona Liza Million is no longer just a stage moniker for Eric Posey, the Idaho drag performer who won a $1.1 million defamation judgment against a conservative blogger who falsely claimed he exposed his genitalia during a Pride Month performance at a local park, ABC News reports. The jury awarded $926,000 in compensatory damages for defamation and $250,000 in punitive damages.
Blogger Summer Bushnell posted a video she had downloaded showing the June 2022 which she altered to blur out the performer’s crotch and then posted that Posey had exposed his genitals. In the video, however, Mona Liza Million wore a long-sleeve leotard, black shorts and tights, with a shiny metallic boa around his waist through the entire performance without removing any clothing.
Although she admitted on the witness stand that she never saw any exposed genitals in the video, Bushnell posted the altered video on her blog, along with commentary about 31 members of the Patriot Front who were arrested at a demonstration against the Pride event. “Why did no one arrest the man in a dress who flashed his genitalia to minors and people in the crowd? No one said anything about it, and there’s video. I’m going to put up a blurred video to prove it.”