Barbara Alper/Getty ImagesDrag has become increasingly visible in recent years through mainstream shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and popular public events such as drag brunches, drag bingo and drag queen story hours, in which drag performers read children’s books to young audiences, often at libraries. Some trans drag queens who received hormone injections were “strongly deplored by stage impersonators who (said) that the whole point of female impersonation depends on maleness,” Newton wrote. But “Drag Race” has also skewed viewers’ definition of drag – no drag kings have ever competed on the series, Testa noted, and the judges have long imposed somewhat traditional beauty standards upon contestants. Pickle reads from a book during the Drag Queen Story Hour program at a Los Angeles library in 2019. These lawmakers falsely claim that drag performers “groom” or sexualize children, of which there is also no evidence.

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