Joan Jett Blakk

Joan Jett Blakk Political Button Museum
Category
Political
Cause
Chicago
Additional Images
Joan Jett Blakk button back Political Button Museum
Joan Jett Blakk Red White and Blue Political Button Museum
Joan Jett Blakk Red White and Blue back Political Button Museum
Joan Jett Blakk var Political Busy Beaver Button Museum
Joan Jett Blakk var back Political Busy Beaver Button Museum
Sub Categories
Illustrations
Text on Button JOAN JETT BLAKK FOR PRESIDENT I WANT YOU, HONEY! LICK BUSH IN '92 QUEER NATION PARTY
Image Description

Green stripes on the top and bottom with white text and a white background in the middle with an illustration of a person in a bikini type top, wearing jewelry and with a green letter q.
Back Style
Locking pin
The Shape
Rectangle
The Size
2 inch X 3 inch
Additional Information

Joan Jett Blakk is the drag persona of performer and politician Terence Smith. In 1991, she unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Chicago against Richard M. Daley. Blakk first garnered national attention for her 1992 president campaign against the Republican incumbent, President George H. W. Bush. Her campaign slogan was "Lick Bush in '92!", as seen on this campaign button. She announced her candidacy on her 35th birthday at Ann Sather restaurant in Chicago, followed by an afterparty at the Berlin nightclub. 

Blakk ran as a member of the Queer Nation Party, which was affiliated with the LGBTQ activist organization, Queer Nation, founded in New York City in 1990 by members of ACT UP. Though each of Blakk's campaigns was unsuccessful, her efforts to bring queerness to the forefront of American politics are remembered with this campaign button and online documentary film footage of her speeches.
Sources

Felshman, Jeffrey. (1992, January 23). "Lick Bush in '92!" Chicago Reader.

Glasrud, Bruce A. (2010). African Americans and the Presidency: The Road to the White House. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis.
Catalog ID PO0888