Send in the clowns: the new guard of activists combating the right

A growing cohort of performers clown' as a means to innovate traditional protest and create social change

On a humid morning on 15 July, Tillie the Clown, a Brooklyn-based drag performer whose real name is Taylor Horne, was waiting to be let inside a New York City council meeting. Horne had started getting into character at 5am, for a makeup and clown-costuming process that would take two hours. It would be another 10 hours before Horne was allowed to address the city council about the passing of Romanch's Law, which would phase out and ultimately ban New York's horse carriage industry.

From the moment Horne walked into the meeting room, carriage horse proponents ridiculed them, pointing and laughing. Dressed in a black top hat and gloves with their face painted white and red, Horne began their three-minute speech: We pride ourselves on being a world-class destination ... yet we are clinging to the exploitation of horse-drawn carriages. A giant prey animal is not built to thrive in New York's overstimulating concrete environment." Horne later learned that those carriage horse supporters went on social media to poke fun at their display. They fell right into my trap," Horne said. They decided to critique the messenger and not the message."