Monday 31-01-2022 - 09:29

Today, when most people think of drag, often the first thing that comes to mind is RuPaul's Drag Race. It's a pretty common stereotypical image - a white, cisgender (i.e., not trans) queer man dolled up in an exaggerated caricature of a woman, with six-inch heels and eyeliner that could cut you in half. It's an unfortunate assumption that drag is an art form that starts and ends with cis men, as though drag isn’t a complex spectrum of gender performance.  

What most people don't know is the history of drag or its importance to the queer community. Even while researching for this blog post, I found more articles discussing the importance of RuPaul's Drag Race rather than the importance of drag itself. But drag queens have been out and proud for many years before popular drag competitions. 

The first recorded organized drag queen group was the Imperial Court in 1964 - and this wasn't just a fun activity, they were, in part, formed to protect the queer community. Led by a preacher, drag queens patrolled the streets of San Francisco as the Lavender Panthers to protect the queer community from the assaults and murders that had become common. 

The 1969 Stonewall riots are one of the most significant parts of queer history, as they led to huge progress for queer rights. Here, drag can be seen in many of its leaders! Drag is in Marsha P. Johnson, a trans woman who also identified as a drag queen, and in Stormé DeLarverie, a “male impersonator,” or more accurately, a 20th-century drag king. In the 1960s, identities were more fluid, and while some of the language may be antiquated, the fact is gender performance has always been alive and well, and not just for cis men. 

This pattern of drag queens fighting for the queer community continued in 1980 with the creation of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. They wore nuns’ habits, painted their faces with white glittery makeup, and began different spectacles of public activism. In 1980 alone, they held a public “Rosary in Time of Nuclear Peril” to protest a nuclear meltdown, chased homophobic Christian protesters out of the Castro and Polk neighborhoods, and raised money for Cuban refugees at disco bingo fundraisers. Two years later, they hosted the first HIV fundraiser. The Sisters’ unique activism continues today, as a global charity. They've raised more than $1 million for various LGBTQ+ charities, and have organized countless LGBTQ+ events and fundraisers.

In short, if there is trouble, you can bet there'll be drag queens at the forefront to make a stand and take action.

Alongside the worries that come from political activism, drag queens have always had an extra level of fear as just their existence could have led to their arrest. Publicity came with the risk criminal charges, including transvestitism, prostitution, sodomy, and other “lewd and lascivious” acts that officers generally considered offensive, until around the 1970s. But this has never stopped drag queens, and it’s largely thanks to them that the queer community is where it is today. 

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, drag competitions and houses became safe places for trans and gender non-conforming people. They provided an environment for the community to genuinely express themselves, without fear of assault or discrimination. Many of these houses became like families, creating a sense of community for those often excluded from wider society.

Throughout history, many have seen and still see drag as a way to challenge gender, and the limitations that society has placed on those who live in it. Every dramatic performance is a way of understanding that there is more to this world than black and white heteronormative and gender ideals. For many, especially the queer community, drag is a form of self-expression, of escaping forced gender roles. It's not just a form of entertainment or a cheap mockery of trans women, it’s often political, a symbol of revolution for the LGBTQ+ community. 

As executive producers of RuPaul’s Drag Race Bailey and Barbato say: “As playful and as fun as drag can and will always be, it can also be serious fun, by playing with society’s norms in a very profound way. And drag only becomes more pointedly political in an environment where an illegitimate regime seeks to impose reductive and cruel ideas about gender that fly in the face of gender’s proven complexity.”

 

This article was contributed by Edge Hill Students' Union Trans & Non-Binary Officer Kai Lambert.