Like many kids growing up, Michael Johnston was looking to fit in.
Sports didn’t interest him as it did his four brothers, and he didn’t have many friends. He found it far easier to get along with adults than kids his own age.
Johnston found an escape from his loneliness and insecurity in the arts. He would go to the library and devour all the books and magazines about New York City, Broadway and the theater. He’d spend hours watching old films and soap operas.
“It was always so much fun to watch all the glamour of Hollywood,” Johnston said. “I wanted to be a part of that.”
What initially started as a diversion has since become a calling, as both an entertainer and a philanthropist. It was while performing at a fundraiser in the 1980s for the Cream City Chorus, a LGBTQ+ choral group, that Johnston first gained recognition, applause and the event’s only encore performing as drag persona Karen Valentine. He later earned a $250 prize for performing in a local talent search competition.
“My philanthropy started with that because I gave the money to the chorus,” said Johnston, who has a background in marketing and communications and has spent the past 20 years working at a prominent health care system. “I guess that is what we are looking for — our niche. Singing was my niche and drag was the other one.”
Described as a bon vivant, Grand Dame of Milwaukee, empress of elegance and queen of hearts, Johnston’s Karen Valentine, or KV, has found followers and fame over the past 40 years as an entertainer, hostess and headliner.
“I never thought it would turn into the cottage industry that it has become,” said Johnston, who, as KV, was featured as one of 80 performers in “Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age,” a photo book and archive of drag history in the United States.
That persona has also allowed Johnston to create a legacy of giving. For the past 15 years, he has been an adviser to a fund at the Cream City Foundation, one of the oldest LGBTQ+ foundations in the country and a partner foundation of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation. In 2025, the fund provided $44,500 in grants to 19 nonprofits.
“I think we all want a purpose in this life,” said Johnston, who personally contributes annually to the fund. “And this is what I’m trying to do for the world. I’m trying to make it a little better, and the route I try to take is through the arts.”
Johnston’s history with the Cream City Foundation stretches back to the early 1990s, when it was a client of his employer, a local advertising agency. The agency worked on fundraisers and other projects for a number of LGBTQ+ groups, and Johnston became acquainted with the foundation’s leadership and several of its donors.
When he turned 50, Johnston threw a birthday celebration at The Room of Boom, a gay club where he was bartending at the time. A friend suggested that in lieu of birthday gifts, Johnston should encourage attendees to contribute to a cause that mattered to him. Per an idea from friend and philanthropist Joe Pabst, Johnston chose the foundation’s new arts fund. Pabst had donated money to create the fund to support LGBTQ+ programs in Milwaukee, specifically in arts, culture and the humanities.
That afternoon Johnston raised $5,000. A month later, after sitting down with Pabst and the Cream City Foundation’s executive director at the time, the fund was renamed The Valentine Fund, and Johnston became the fund’s sole adviser.
While continuing to focus on the fund’s original purpose, Johnston also likes to support grassroots groups that provide arts programming for youth. One of the programs he has supported over the past several years is Ex Fabula’s Youth Affinity Storytelling. The program offers storytelling workshops to help youth develop self-advocacy skills, identify strengths and build relationships; it culminates with a story slam. In 2024, he emceed the event as KV at PrideFest and was impressed by the strength shown and stories shared by the students.
“They blew my pantyhose off,” Johnston said.
Johnston’s support has allowed Ex Fabula to offer more workshops and storytelling events for youth, which can be quite transformative for participants, said Megan McGee, the organization’s executive director.
“He understands the importance of the arts,” she said. “It’s important to realize you are not alone and that people support you. Speak your truth and be affirmed and validated. That is not just art access — it is important for our mental health to feel connected and not alone.”
Nowadays, when not hosting standing events such as bingo every Tuesday night at Miss Katie’s Diner, a show at La Cage every third Saturday or Club Charlie’s Sunday Funday Show Tunes on Sundays, Johnston/KV can be found emceeing or performing at fundraising events to benefit the Valentine Fund.
“It’s my gift back,” Johnston said about the fund. “It’s my thank you. It’s my legacy.”