Jessica Drake Protest Dress Captures Mainstream Attention

LAS VEGAS—Anyone who's read just about any adult media over the past decade or so is well aware that Wicked contract star Jessica Drake is way into progressive politics. Whether it's her many Jessica Drake's Guide how-to sex videos, or her leadership of Wicked's AIDS Walk LA fundraising team, she's one of the most politically active performers in the industry today. That fact got noticed by New York magazine's Web section The Cut, which aims to "explore[] a modern woman's world with intelligence, sophistication, and humor"—and part of that exploration led reporter Katie Van Syckle to the AVN Awards' Red Carpet ... and fashion-forward Drake's red, white and blue dress reminiscent of an American flag... but with one important difference: several very obvious burn marks. Drake had just returned from Saturday's Women's March on Washington, where more than a million women from across the country descended upon the city to protest the presidency of Donald Trump. "I marched for LGBT rights, black lives matter, the rights of sex workers, immigrants," Drake told Van Syckle. "I think it is important that we hold the new administration accountable, and we really have to be on the ball with it, and this was a really great example, the potential in the situation, and that they will be heard." According to her Facebook page, the exertion and jetlag of flying to D.C. and back over the course of one day left her with a fever of 102... and a burning desire to make a statement about what the country, and the adult industry, will be in for under Trump rule. "When he [Trump] said that anyone that burns an American flag deserves to lose their citizenship and be in prison, I got the idea to wear this dress," Drake told Van Syckle on the Awards' Red Carpet. "Obviously it is not an actual flag, but I want to get attention and to get people to think. If people are patriotic enough to be upset about what I’m wearing, then surely they are patriotic enough to know that the First Amendment gives me the right to wear it." Drake also carried a handbag emblazoned with the slogan "#NotMyPresident." Beyond politics, Drake has a more personal reason to dislike Trump: In 2006, while Drake was in Lake Tahoe working the Wicked booth at a golf tournament, Trump invited her and other porn stars to his room and, dressed only in pajamas, grabbed her "tightly in a hug" and kissed her without asking her consent, then later invited her back to his room, and through an intermediary offered her $10,000 to have sex with him. While in D.C., Drake got to meet three others of the 11 whom Trump had reportedly sexually assaulted—Temple Taggart, Summer Zervos and Rachel Crooks—and to talk about how coming forward had affected their lives. She also responded to Trump's claim that whatever he may have done to her didn't matter because "as a porn star, it was not unusual for her to be grabbed by men." "As a sex worker, to have him counter with, 'Oh, she’s a porn star, I’m sure she’s been grabbed before'—like that makes it okay, and sex workers and porn stars can't be assaulted. It was really harmful. I was really offended, and it is still one of the driving factors in what I’m doing today: to keep talking about it." We're sure she will!