Most of those efforts failed, but they have fueled harmful rhetoric around drag performers and the art form itself.
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.
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.
It’s why Alaska Thunderf**k, the blonde bouffanted winner of the second season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” first got into drag – to make art that wasn’t bound by rules.
Persons:
Anderson Cooper, twirling, Madonna’s, Papa Don’t, ”, “, Meatball, George Santos, Mo B, Dick, It’s, Joe E, Jeffreys, Barbara Alper, ” Jeffreys, ’, Larry La Fountain, Stokes, Ann Arbor, von Miramar, you’ve, William Dorsey Swann, Swann, Channing Gerard Joseph, Nino Testa, ” Testa, it’s, ” Julian Eltinge, pansy, weren’t, Joan Jett Blakk, Adam Turner, Blakk, —, ” Blakk, I’m, Testa, Devin Antheus, Harry James Hanson, Hanson, Marsha P, Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, ” Antheus, Esther Newton, impersonators, ” Newton, RuPaul Charles, who’d, Monica Beverly Hillz, Kylie Sonique, RuPaul, Sasha Colby, Santiago Felipe, David McNew, Antheus, aren’t, who’ve, we’ll
Organizations:
CNN, New York University, University of Michigan, New, Princeton University, Texas Christian University, Police, Queens, San Francisco, Stonewall, “, Guardian, Broadway, Movement Advancement
Locations:
Florida, Ann, “, Harlem, Washington, America, Fort Worth, New York, San Francisco, Tennessee, Montana, Los Angeles, It’s, Alaska