Labor Day weekend,brings on Southern Decadence, New Orleans paean to gay debauchery and craziness.  One of the acts that has been a Decadence staple, Charles Knipp a/k/a Shirley Q. Liquor, will be a no show and neither Decadence organizers nor Ms. Shirley are saying why.

For those not in the know Liquor is Knipp’s drag stage name and her life is interesting to say the least. She has 19 “chirren” (children), fathers unknown. The names of her children are Bucket, Gonorrhea, Bubblelicious, Cheeto, Orangello, Chlamydia, and Kmartina,  etc., etc. She sings songs wondering about the parentage of her brood, the United Negro Scholarship Fund, and the joys of a toke or two. For Knipp, a white gay man in his 40’s,  to perform as Shirley he dons black-face.

Knipp is convinced his act, a 21st century minstrel show, is about racial healing.

“There are so many pent-up things that black people want to say to white people and vice versa, but we’re all scared to death of offending each other,” Knipp told Rolling Stone a few years back. “I think God’s plan for me is to get right in the middle of all the tension and just make them laugh and say, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve thought that, but nobody’s ever said it out loud.’ There’s gotta be some healing that comes from that. And I truly think that’s why God put me here: to be a healer.”

Racial reconciliation through darky humor?! That is as kooky as saving a village by burning it down. Dear Mr. Knipp: drop me a note and explain how this racial love happens with your face corked up.

It should not be surprising that Knipp’s act has few supporters who are black and gay (although RuPaul is a fan and thinks anyone who calls Knipp’s act racist is not paying attention). Journalist Jasmyne Cannick has written some biting commentary about the man and his act (for some reason Knipp thought it would be precious to superimpose Cannick’s face on the body of a black porn star with huge breasts).

“A man who out of one side of his mouth tells the media that you love you some Black people and was raised by a Black woman and you have nothing but the utmost respect for us, all the while you make a living by degrading us and our race,” Cannick wrote in a letter to RuPaul and Knipp.

I’m no betting man and have no inside information, but this silence from the Knipp camp means he’s planning a big to-do. Because Knipp is convinced he is a healer (I laugh every time I think about that) here is what he will do this year: Shirley Q will be transformed into the “real Michelle Obama” (shrewish and disdainful of J. Crew clothes) and RuPaul will play President Obama as he really is when the lights are off–thuggish with a love for dog fighting. Like I said, I have no inside scoop, but when it happens at Decadence remember where you heard it first. Let the mending begin!