Before becoming the “full-time party girl” with the power to turn any room with Instagram Reels into a dingy dance floor packed with queer people — at least for a minute or two — Tara Dikhof was much like a lot of queer Washingtonians: upset at how the first Trump administration quickly began attacking marginalized communities’ rights, and in need of a creative, constructive outlet.

“I used to be a journalist at Media Matters, where I worked on our online extremism and LGBTQ program,” Tara Dikhof told the Blade when asked how she became the actualized drag performer she is today. “I did extensive work documenting how the right wing media ecosystem poisons the debate on queer issues — and spreads virulent lies about LGBTQ people online.”

Media Matters is a nonprofit that describes itself as a “progressive research and information center” with the goal of “monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”

Tara, who, while working at Media Matters under the name Alex Paterson, lived up to that goal. She wrote — or assisted the media watchdog with — more than 150 articles for the web-based organization. While she covered a wide variety of topics, she became a leading voice covering Joe Rogan during her tenure as a senior researcher for the LGBTQ Program at Media Matters.

“I think some of my most impactful work from my time at Media Matters was when I was the leading journalist reporting on Joe Rogan’s extremism and right wing misinformation. I broke the story that he was encouraging young people not to get the COVID vaccine,” Dikhof said. “I reported that the presidential debates hadn’t asked a question about LGBTQ issues since the 2000s. I also led a study looking at TV news reporting on anti-trans violence, showing that TV news stations, cable and broadcast combined, collectively reported on anti-trans violence for less than an hour almost every year.”

In addition to media coverage, Dikhof also worked on the inside as a Truman-Albright Fellow and policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, working to improve the health and safety of Americans.

That effort was recognized from both sides of the political aisle. She and her detailed research appeared in a slew of outlets, includingDemocracy Now!, The Atlantic, and even the Blade’s West Coast sister publication, the LA Blade, among others. While her work began making headlines informing people about the dangers of under coverage of LGBTQ issues, it also garnered attention from staunch anti-LGBTQ voices.

One of those voices — and the one Dikhof ultimately credits as the reason she bowed out of the media watchdog world — was Elon Musk. Musk, the CEO of Tesla, founder and chief engineer of SpaceX, and owner of X, was not pleased with coverage of the platform’s questionable practices under his leadership. The app relaxed censorship policies, dissolved its Trust and Safety Council, and reinstated thousands of previously banned accounts — many of them far-right accounts found to be pushing harmful misinformation and disinformation.

“He was trying to silence fact-based journalism that revealed that his platform X was running advertisements next to Nazi content,” Dikhof said. “When you’re facing lawsuits against the richest man in the world, unfortunately, the facts don’t matter as much.”

She said it led to her being let go from the media watchdog organization — something she had worked so long to help grow awareness about the dangers of growing authoritarianism on platforms and across the airwaves.

“That was incredibly devastating. I dedicated my entire adult life to the progressive movement, to trying to stop right wing misinformation, and to have that drop out from under me was defeating, to say the least. But you can’t keep a powerful girl down.”

She didn’t stay down for long. She tapped into the drag and DJ world after leaving the nation’s capital. Since then, she has expanded on her drag journey and opened for some of the world’s biggest performers — from Aliyah’s Interlude, to Violet Chachki, to massive pop superstar Chappell Roan. It seems the Dikhof rocket has taken off and doesn’t look like it’s slowing down.

That switch, she explained, has her feeling like she is doing more for the LGBTQ community than she could at Media Matters.

“I started throwing parties and community events for queer people in Boston, and I now throw parties for over 1,200 people a month,” she said. “I honestly don’t feel like I’ve ever had more of an impact on queer and trans people than I am now. I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that getting a group of LGBTQ people in a room together and letting them radically express themselves through dance and movement and to build new friendships and to find the love of their life — is a radical act.”

Her goal is simple — provide a place for LGBTQ people, specifically trans people, to let down their hair — or in her case, giant wigs and fantastical headpieces — and just dance.

“I’m just trying to give people a space to exist, which for a lot of queer and trans people right now is not something they can do. They don’t feel safe at work, they don’t feel safe at home, they don’t feel safe in public, and the one oasis that they can access is the gay club. It’s a place where they can dress however they want, they can love whoever they want.”

That radical act, she explained, should be as inclusive as America is diverse. She sees the waves of conservatism that have hit the federal government — and state offices around the country swinging to the right — reflected in the nightlife scene she encounters. LGBTQ clubs have long been a proxy for the social standards in mainstream America, which often focus heavily on young, white, cisgender men.

“It is one of the most connecting things we can do while we’re on this planet. My guiding light is, I am trying to build dance floors that are multigenerational and multiracial. I’m trying to start a new chapter in queer nightlife, where dance floors aren’t just dominated by white, buff gay men.”

While in-person nightlife has led to a diverse dance floor thumping with bops from Slayyyter’s new release “Wor$t Girl In America” to gay club classics like Ariana Grande’s “Into You” — with wild-haired Dikhof at the helm in looks that could make even Cher do a double take — her rise has also been immensely assisted by some of the very platforms she once called out while living in Washington.

She has amassed quite the following — 142,000 followers on Instagram, 2.6 million likes on TikTok, and thousands of streams on SoundCloud.

Despite this growing and visibly powerful media presence, she has hard limits on when and where she deems it appropriate. The dance floor is not always one of those places — not just due to the growing data on the harm social media causes to users’ health, but also to stay true to her goal of helping the LGBTQ community become a stronger, more accepting place.

“Social media promises connection and relationships, but it’s not true. What we actually need is a way for people to put their phones down and connect with others in real life,” she said. “I’m trying to build a coalition that represents the true power of the LGBTQ community, where we can all exist in harmony together. At a lot of my parties, I have a no-phones policy, because what I want people to do is disconnect from social media, disconnect from our system of mass surveillance, and just be present for a few hours.”

“For my party, Feral, which is [a] no-phones LGBTQ rager, at the door before anyone enters the party, we tell them our party’s policies, and we make sure they have a verbal yes agreeing to them,” she said. “Those policies are no phones, no photos, no videos on the dance floor, treat yourself and others with respect.”

She sees this intentional inclusivity as a major way to combat the hate trickling down from the Trump-Vance administration and regurgitated by mainstream media organizations that feed into that bias.

“I believe that we can create, and we can continue to build radical change in this country on the dance floor. So much mainstream media has consistently allowed conservative media to set the terms of debate for LGBTQ rights. Mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post, outlets like New York Times, put trans rights up for debate when we can all agree that human rights are not something that we can debate.”

She continued, explaining that the bias mainstream media imposes — like with The New York Times’ consistently criticized coverage of transgender people, which often has little or no actual transgender voices in its reporting — frames these issues as cultural debates rather than basic human rights.

“These mainstream outlets don’t debunk those claims. They don’t push back on them. We need to say that lesbians belong at the gay club. We need to say that we don’t tolerate anti-Black discrimination at the gay club. We need to say that trans people deserve to be loud and messy in the gay club, just like everyone else gets to.”

She explained that what she is trying to do is simple in theory — make the space truly a dance haven for everyone in the community.

“What I’m really trying to do is I’m trying to open a portal of transcendence. I’m trying to create magical moments where all of the problems in the world drop out of your mind.”

Dikhof attempts to do this, she explained, by tapping into that deeply human — and animalistic — need for connection.

“Humans are primates and primates are animals that need physical touch. We need community spaces, and increasingly, with social media, late stage capitalism, and a horrible economic outlook, people don’t have a public forum to connect with others. There have been nights where I have taken a $3,000 loss, but it’s part of it.”

To her, the value queer nightlife gives to the community can’t be measured by ticket sales or ad clicks — it’s measured by acts of queer joy and defiance that echo the community’s need for broader survival in an era of book bans and hostility for the sake of cruelty.

“All we need is a room for four hours, a DJ, a working sound system, and a community that cares about protecting each other. If you have that, you can create total bliss. I think the beauty and transcendence of queer nightlife is something that Republican lawmakers will probably never understand.”

She sees the dance floor as just as important for queer people as the Senate floor. Not separate from politics — it is politics.

“I do believe that having queer community spaces is an integral part of political organizing. We cannot let the bastards steal our joy. Getting out of the house and being loudly queer is a form of resistance.”

“Right now, I’m really living my wildest dreams and I’m hungry. This is just the beginning for Tara Dikhof. We’re living in a society where we have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and God like technology, and I am going to use that God like technology to the best of my ability.”

Tara Dikhof is currently on her summer tour, starting at Project GLOW for Queer Chaos in Washington. She will return — after crisscrossing the country — to perform at Bunker on June 20 during Capital Pride weekend.

When people think of Sam Asghari, they often think about his TV career, his long history as a model, or even his love life — but not enough know just how much of an advocate this professional really is. 

Many first met Asghari through his time on reality TV; the man earned acclaim for his hilariously soft-spoken tenure on season three of “The Traitors.” This came after many years as a model — as well as former husband to a certain pop star — with the reality series showing that he could stun as much onscreen as he could on a runway. Yet even though recent years have seen thousands of fans fall in love with Asghari’s quiet charm, far too many of these new supporters still don’t realize how important LGBTQ advocacy is to Sam today. 

Asghari has spent recent years speaking out against queer discrimination in both the United States and his home country of Iran. Yet while he’s never been shy about his support, there hasn’t yet been an opportunity to really use his platform to fight for this community on a larger level. Well, luckily for us all, Asghari’s newest (and possibly sexiest) project will give him the chance to do just that, as Sam was just announced as the newest ambassador for the United States’ largest provider of free online PrEP, MISTR.

“It’s an honor and a pleasure to kick off this allyship with such a great company making such a huge impact!” raved Asghari, as he sat down with the Los Angeles Blade to discuss this new partnership. The interview took place in West Hollywood’s The Abbey, a club that’s become a second home to Sam in recent years; the model was seen at almost every one of the many events that MISTR hosted at the club in 2025. “My best friends, my mentors, and everybody that I adore that make me who I am — [they all] just happen to be [LGBTQ]! [But] where I come from … people within this community don’t get to say it outright.”

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Sam spoke about witnessing queer discrimination early on in his life through the treatment of these communities in Iran, describing, “They have to hide away … they [get punished] just for being themselves.” It’s a prejudice that he has unfortunately seen grow across the U.S. in recent years, which is what made him realize that he needed to do more for these groups who’ve helped him become who he is today. “I feel a huge responsibility on my shoulders to not only represent [them], but be the voice of [those facing discrimination] when I can.”

This is why he was thrilled to be the newest addition to the MISTR family, a brand that queer Angelinos will know well; plastered around the city — but especially in West Hollywood — are ads for the service, each ad featuring muscular men in speedos preaching about the importance of PrEP and long-term HIV care. The company has perfected this versatile form of marketing, not only catching people’s attention with the fun on display but underlying it with a serious mission of revolutionizing queer healthcare. It’s proven itself as both a serious provider of health services and a constant stream of scintillating fun — meaning it was just the right opportunity for Sam Asghari. 

“MISTR does such a great job as creating not only awareness, but providing the tools for everybody to have PrEP … they’re trying to raise awareness in the biggest ways possible,” Asghari explained, when discussing what drew him to the company in the first place. “I needed it more than they needed me,” he joked. “Not only do I [get] to have a good time, [but] I also get to make this world a better place.” 

It’s a collaboration that fans are already loving; the first images of Sam donning MISTR’s iconic blue Speedo were met with acclaim from thousands of LGBTQ users online earlier this week. While definitely entertaining on a superficial level, the deeper aspects of these initial photos speak to the style of advocacy that Sam Asghari has spent his entire life building. He is willing to literally bare it all to raise awareness of important issues affecting queer folks around the globe. And while the collaboration does focus around him, he’s pursuing it knowing that his role as an ally means that unaware portions of his usual audience will suddenly get to learn about the vital resources MISTR offers today. “This campaign is going to be something extremely sexy, and it’s going to open a lot of eyes in a good way. So be ready.”

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This is the perfect time for Sam Asghari to use the massive amount of thirst his fans have for him to educate them on the importance of queer healthcare. It’s why he was so honored and thrilled to be named MISTR’s newest ambassador. And it’s why, through his new campaign, Sam Asghari may just help this company uplift more people in need than it ever has before. 

The DC Black Pride Opening Reception was held at the Westin DC Downtown on Friday, May 22. Grammy Award-winning artist Durand Bernarr was the headline performer. Comedian Anthony Oakes was the host. Speakers included Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson and Center For Black Equity President Kenya Hutton, as well as speakers from health organizations and sponsors. The event featured performances from Billy the Goat, Jay Columbus, Akeem Woods, Rue Pratt, Be Steadwell and Bennu Byrd.

(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)