Charlotte drag queen mural has been painted over. Landlord says it was an accident
In March, Buff Faye led a group on her Drag Queen Funny Bus tour to Central Avenue, where she planned to show them a mural of iconic Charlotte drag queen Brandy Alexander.
Instead, they arrived to find a blank beige wall.
The mural, painted in 2016, celebrated the performer and symbolized queer resistance against the controversial “bathroom bill,” House Bill 2, said Shane Windmeyer, who performs drag as Buff Faye. He said it was unsettling to see a blank wall where the vibrant mural, filled with symbols of LGBTQ history, once stood.
“It sends a real, in my opinion, dangerous message when something that is in a LGBTQ friendly area could be so easily erased, and it’s a testament to the times we’re living in,” Windmeyer said. “We should be outraged with the fact that there’s something that meant something to many in our community… and all of a sudden it’s just erased.”
The mural could be viewed from the public parking lot on the corner of Central Avenue and Thomas Avenue in Plaza Midwood.
Jack Dunn, managing partner at Chartwell Property Group, which bought the building last year, said in an email to The Charlotte Observer that the mural was painted over by accident. The group hired a contractor to paint a building on Pecan Street and a miscommunication led to the mural being covered.
The mistake was not a “political statement,” Dunn said.
“We are not infallible. In our efforts to improve and maintain the structures, (our contractors) misinterpreted our request and painted over the mural, but it was with the intent of giving a better home to our merchants,” Dunn said. “Our intent is to preserve the neighborhood, not sanitize it with new development.”
Dunn said the group is considering a new art installation at 1510 Central Ave. that pays homage to the Brandy Alexander mural after hearing community feedback. The group will collaborate with tenants to decide on a design, he said.
‘Brandy will not be forgotten’
Brandy Alexander, known out of drag as Danny Leonard, was like a great grandmother to drag queens in Charlotte before her death in 2016, Windmeyer said. She performed at local clubs in the 1970s, circumventing anti-drag laws by wearing multiple pairs of men’s underwear underneath her costumes. A pillar of the queer community in North Carolina, Brandy Alexander raised $350,000 for people with HIV and AIDS in the 1980s and opened a gay bar in Jacksonville, according to University of North Carolina at Charlotte archives.
She died two days before North Carolina’s H.B. 2 went into effect. Before it was repealed, the “bathroom bill” nullified anti-discrimination laws that allowed transgender people to use public restrooms based on their gender identity, and prohibited cities from passing further anti-discrimination policies beyond the state law. The mural’s artist took note of that by adding equality symbols to the mural and painting former Gov. Pat McCrory into Brandy Alexander’s earrings, Windmeyer said.
Windmeyer said the mural’s erasure is particularly concerning at a time when the Trump administration and lawmakers have taken aim at queer rights. The National Park Service removed all references to transgender people from the website for the Stonewall National Monument, even changing the acronym “LGBTQ” to “LGB.”
“We were quite excited that Charlotte had a mural of a drag queen… who historically had given their love and support to their community,” Windmeyer said. “It was really a protest to say, ‘you know what, Brandy will not be forgotten, and we will stand up and resist here in North Carolina any law that hurts or harms trans people, hurts and harms LGBTQ+ people.’ And that’s what that mural was about.”
Changing Plaza Midwood
Lesa Kastanas, who owns the building next to the mural, said she was stunned in February when she first saw the beige wall where the piece used to be. She and her husband knew Brandy Alexander, and the mural was a testament to her influence on Charlotte’s queer culture, Kastanas said.
“It was literally a work of art,” she said. “This is our most vulnerable community, and we have to protect them at all costs, whether it’s symbolic or in life.”
Kastanas said Plaza Midwood is an area that has always been accepting of all people, and she’s worried about how the neighborhood is changing.
Dunn told the Observer Chartwell Property Group had Plaza Midwood’s unique characteristics in mind when purchasing the property and wants to maintain those quirks.
“We purchased the assets valuing the unique characteristics of the neighborhood with the express intent of maintaining the asset as older assets with character,” he said. “Our intent is to own the assets long term and to provide a great home to the local merchants that make Plaza Midwood special.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 1:58 PM.
