In April 2016, drag queen Ritzy Bitz received a message on social media from Voss Events warning her that a popular show she hosted would have to change its name. Voss Events, run by the notorious Brandon Voss, in the years before sending ominous threats had become one of the leading production and marketing companies for LGBTQ talent. The burgeoning brand is widely considered a pioneer of world tours and media blitzes for top-level drag artists — something that would have been inconceivable only a decade ago before the rise of RuPaul’s “Drag Race.” Having conquered nightclubs and global nightlife, Voss was setting its sights on a new territory: brunch.
“When it was first drawn to my attention [they told me] something like, ‘Hey, we’ve trademarked Drag Brunch, can you stop using that on your advertisements?’ And I thought that was pretty aggressive — but whatever. I understand. I thought: I’m doing brunch locally, but they’re doing brunch globally,” says Bitz. “I also laughed because they had only made the trademark just weeks after I had been joking about making my own trademark for Drag Brunch. It could have been me. I took it as a challenge to personalize my show and not just call it Drag Brunch.”