Black drag queens, the 'Prancing Elites,' make surprise appearance in Ala. Christmas parade

The Christmas parade in Semmes, Ala., took an unexpected turn on Saturday when a group of male drag queens, the "Prancing Elites,” performed in the annual event.

The dancers were invited to perform in the Semmes Christmas parade, so they thought that their skills would be appreciated. Unfortunately that didn’t end up being the case.

"Some of them were saying stuff like 'Oh my God, what's that?'" dancer Adrian Clemons said.

The performers were booed and heard jeers during their performance.

"I would rather you pull us to the side and say, hey that's probably not a good idea for you guys to march. Okay we can accept that," dancer Jerel Maddox said.

"I was outraged and appalled. I never expect anything like this at the Semmes Christmas parade," said Claudia Davis, who was at the parade with her daughter.

"If they were gonna put this kind of activity in the parade, they should have notified the people of Semmes so that we had a choice whether we wanted out children to attend and see something like that," Davis said.

According to Davis, the City Council will take control of planning the event next year.

The Prancing Elites apologized to those who were offended, despite the fact that they had been asked to perform.

"We do want to apologize if we offended anybody who did not know who we were before today, but still at the end of the day, we only just came to dance and we did get invited," said group captain Kentrell Collins.

Since the parade controversy, the dance troupe has been booked for New Year's Eve and Mardi Gras celebrations.

[Fox 10 News]