Trump tried to stop a drag activist group from getting an honorific history marker. He failed.

The Rubi Girls have raised over $3 million for local and regional charities of all sorts.

Ohio’s lead historical society, the Ohio History Connection (OHC) recently dedicated an official state historical marker to recognize The Rubi Girls, a comedic drag troupe that raised over $3 million for local and region HIV, LGBTQ+, and other community groups over the last 40 years, The Buckeye Flame reported.

The OHC unveiled the marker on May 3 outside the Rubi Clubhouse, where the group rehearses, in Dayton’s South Park neighborhood. Tim Farquhar, a Rubi Girls founding member, expressed gratitude that the marker was able to get erected despite the federal government ending funding for LGBTQ+-related historical markers last year.

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“Ours was the last [LGBTQ+] marker [of 10] up for consideration before [the Trump administration] stopped funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion markers,” Farquhar said. “We were able to push it through.”

The marker was installed as part of the Gay Ohio History Initiative’s (GOHI) “Marking Diverse Ohio” project, part of the OHC’s commitment to recognize the important historical contributions of LGBTQ+ Ohioans.

In April 2025, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut off a $250,000 grant to create 10 new LGBTQ+ Ohio historical markers across the state, The Buckeye Flame reported. Before their recent installation, the state only had three such markers, GOHI said in a 2025 video.

To qualify for the marker, the drag troupe spent half a decade researching their intersections with local and state history, through work alongside OHC historians and archivists. The Rubi Girls even raised money to cover the marker’s installation and maintenance.

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The historical marker notes that the group’s members initially raised money for the AIDS Resource Center Ohio and the Ohio AIDS Coalition, and volunteered as performers and facilitators at HIV/AIDS Coalition Healing Weekend Retreats around the state. The group expanded its fundraising in the 1990s with annual galas like “Masquerage” and “The Show Must Go On,” a marathon drag benefit.

The group originally formed in 1984 when four friends began performing funny drag routines for their own enjoyment in the attic of a rented condominium. They eventually named their group after the condo’s address on Rubicon Street.

Though the men began peforming slapstick lip sync routines in bedding and bath towels, they eventually gained a devoted following who’d sit in their attic for shows. The performers began buying thrift store clothes, wigs, and makeup to improve their looks, and later began raising money for HIV/AIDS in 1986 by collecting audience donations at the end of their shows.

“We never really started off this whole situation to be philanthropic, or to do something good for the community,” Farquhar said. “It started off because none of us had any money. We were college students and we wanted something fun to do.”

Last year, The Rubi Girls reportedly helped raise over $100,000 to benefit over 100 charities and non-profits, including transgender resource groups, food banks, housing groups, women’s health organizations, advocacy groups for people with disabilities, numerous arts organizations, other local and national LGBTQ+ group, as well as Dayton Black Pride and the local Jewish community center.

“[The marker is an] extreme honor for the Rubi Girls,” Farquhar said. “But it comes at such a critical time in our state’s history, as officials in the state of Ohio are trying to ban drag in many public places and honestly attack the transgender community,” he added, referencing H.B. 249, a state law that would ban drag performances in any public venue where minors may be present.

“When you walk by that marker, I want you to know that when we gave an organization money, we know that their principles and their core values align with ours,” Farquhar continued. “Sometimes some of the people who are receiving the benefits of that money might not feel the same way that we do or have the same social outlook.”

“That’s okay,” he said. “We gave from our heart, and we gave to everyone who needed it. That’s what’s important to me.” 

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