How drag became a battle in the culture wars
This culminated in November when a gunman opened fire at the end of the drag show at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, killing five and injuring 18.
How is it playing out?
While TV shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race continue to pull in large audiences, “lawmakers across the country are engaged in a different sort of race: to restrict drag performances in the name of protecting children”, said The Economist.
Last month, Tennessee became the first US state to ban drag shows in public after the governor, Bill Lee, signed a law criminalising “male or female impersonators” performing in public spaces where they could be seen by children.
The Times reported that at least a dozen other states have proposed similar bans on drag shows, “which have become a fixation on America’s political right, which claims that the performances are a pretext for ‘grooming’ children”.
What about the UK?
While Drag Queen Story Hour has been in the UK since 2017, anti-drag sentiment has yet to enter the mainstream, although there are signs it could follow a similar trajectory to the US.
Appearances have begun to be met by fierce protests from those claiming that the acts are sexualising children, with parenting and anti-woke groups concerned at a 300% increase in the number of drag acts performing at UK schools, libraries and churches over the last year.
“The sexual element of drag is impossible to deny,” wrote Andrew Doyle for UnHerd. And “while many drag queens are happy to tone it down, others have made little effort to modify their raunchy style for children”.
The Times reported this month that drag queens dressed in bondage-like gear and underwear had performed at a sensory event for babies in south London, sparking protests and death threats for the organisers, said the paper.
“Since there hasn’t been a single instance I can find of drag queens grooming children for sex (those who do that tend to dress up as respectable middle-aged men),” said David Aaronovitch also in The Times, such a claim from anti-woke groups simply “constitutes an unpleasant libel”.
You can now find “voluble groups who will argue that drag queen storytelling is part of a war on our western culture”, he said, but “the reality is that most of us want little part in these conflicts and would rather be guided by moderation and common sense”.
Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/society/959951/how-drag-became-a-new-battle-in-the-culture-wars