Drag Queen Story Hour- Not A Case Of "Very Fine People On Both Sides"

Ignorance, Bigotry, and Fear aren't lighting the path to Enlightenment

(credit to righthandedleftyartist3)

Among the things that concern me about America today is the disturbing tendencies of far too many “adults” to pass along their hatred and misunderstanding (usually based on fear and ignorance) to the progeny. Rather than trying to understand something, these Nobel laureates leap to a conclusion based on fear and ignorance. They choose not to make an effort to understand something and learn that it poses no threat to themselves, their lifestyle, or, more importantly, their children.

Fear, of course, is a powerful motivator, and those who react out of fear are likely to do something- ANYTHING- to ensure that the thing they fear can’t harm them or their loved ones. Such is the case with the nationwide furor over Drag Queen Story Hour.

Oh, the humanity….

[T]he Idaho Capital Sun reported a chilling announcement from Idaho Family Policy Center President Blaine Conzatti: The upcoming state legislative session will include a new bill, co-drafted by the group, that will ban public drag performances throughout Idaho. If passed into law, the Idaho measure would be the most draconian government measure taken against LGBTQ people in several decades. Liberals should not write this bill off, but rather recognize it as the next step in stripping away hard-won protections for LGBTQ people in America.

The Idaho legislation comes amid a national panic on the right over Drag Queen Story Hour, which typically features a drag queen in a spangly outfit reading children’s books to kids. Idaho’s conservatives are reacting to a series of controversies that have popped up throughout the state, many driven by a panicky right-wing media environment. Conzatti cited a drag performance in Coeur d’Alene in June in which the performer was accused of exposing himself to children attending the event. The local prosecutor’s office determined that video allegedly showing the exposure was manipulated and the performer had not done so. According to the Coeur d’Alene Press, the performer is suing a conservative blogger for defamation over the incident.

Most “good and decent” White Conservative Christian heterosexual Americans don’t understand drag culture, nor are they willing to make an effort to learn about it. If they did, they’d understand that it poses no threat to them or their children.

Gender-bending, or “drag,” is an art form (you can learn more about its history here) in which a person dresses in elaborate clothing and make-up as a person (usually male) of the opposite sex. “Drag culture” is an integral part of the LGBTQ community; there’s no heterosexual equivalent, although shows like RuPaul’s Drag Rave have helped to introduce drag to mainstream heterosexual audiences.

A “drag queen” is someone who uses make-up and costumes to almost literally assume the identity of another persona. However, it’s only been in the last decade or two that drag queens have become popular enough to draw the attention of mainstream media. Prior to that, drag culture was very much an underground phenomenon, but gender-bending practices go back much further in human history.

Few fans of the art form realize that the earliest forms of cross-dressing — simply the act of wearing clothes that are designated as belonging to the opposite sex — are actually rooted in religious rites. In his book Drag Diaries, Jonathan David focuses on two long-ago origin points: ancient ceremonies (Native American, indigenous South American, and Ancient Egyptian) and Japanese theater. David writes that "cross-dressing was widely documented among the Aztecs, Incas, and Egyptians, among other great civilizations of the past, and exists today in tribal ceremonies around the world." Imagine religious rites of initiation, invocations of the gods, calling down the rains, and warding off evil spirits as occasions that would call for drag in these cultures.

Eventually, these religious performances began to have a life of their own. In fact, these eclectic sets of dramas were eventually removed from the church entirely. Rather than perform the stories in hallowed chapel halls, local Guilds would instead take the reins. In fact, very specific groups would tackle the narratives most applicable to their trade. "Thus the Vintners would perform the Marriage of Cana," Baker writes, "the Shipwrights would present Noah and his Ark, while the Goldsmiths could use the Adoration of the Magi as a suitable excuse to display their precious products."

Women were excluded from the sacred parts of the cross-dressing performances, and as gender-bending morphed into more secular versions, drag culture remained an exclusively male domain. At this point, drag culture wasn’t associated with homosexuality. That connection didn’t come until much later, until the 1930s, with some of the first criminal persecutions beginning in the 1950s.

Jeffreys told me that this link didn't really happen until the 1930s. "Before then, the scientific field of sexology was forming and began to talk about the 'third sex,'" he said. "The third sex was discussed as a feminine man or a masculine woman who desires members of the same sex. By the 1930s this scientific conversation had worked its way into the popular culture and linked drag with homosexuality." This connection marked the switch: drag culture no longer belonged to straight, white men. In this moment, we witness the emergence of the first true drag queens. "Drag queens are not only males who dress and perform as female but also have some connection to a gay scene," Jeffreys said. "Until gay bars emerged, either clandestinely or legally, the drag queen was bounded by private parties, and even then police raids were possible."

Since the 1950s and the pervasive conservatism that defined the “proper” popular definition of sex and sexuality, “drag culture” has remained, until the last decade or so, an underground, persecuted culture. Drag culture was seen as perverted and unnatural- a definition that has remained strong among more socially conservative segments of the American populace. It was also greatly disdained by more socially Conservative segments of American society, who were deeply uncomfortable with seeing men in drag and speaking in falsetto.

What’s happening in Idaho is representative of a growing backlash in red states and even among Conservatives in blue states. More often than not, a vocal and hostile minority will show up at a peaceful Drag Queen Story Hour and do their best to disrupt and ultimately shut it down.

Much of this panic over drag has been driven by large anti-LGBTQ social media accounts like LibsOfTikTok. These accounts will report an event happening somewhere in the country, and local conservatives and extremists like the Proud Boys show up to intimidate attendees. Conservative politicians have joined in on inflating the controversy to drive outrage and votes, and the potential Idaho bill plays right into the scheme.

In many cases, it’s not even about Drag Queen Story Hour as much as it is a chance for local Proud Boys and other malcontents to raise Hell and rough up and intimidate a few people who only wanted to have an enjoyable afternoon.

Drag queens, of course, aren’t the problem. They’re a convenient target because they’re easily identifiable and historically non-violent. Drag queens don’t hate, and they don’t preach exclusion. They’re not racist, sexist, ableist, or any kind of -ist. Drag culture is about a person becoming someone other than themselves and performing, whether song, dance, theater, or combinations of the above. Or even just reading to children. Here in Portland, they’ll have Trivia Night in several bars around town.

Drag queens don’t recruit children. Though I don’t have any data on this, I’d wager that White Conservative Christian heterosexual males are far more likely to sexually abuse children than drag queens. Feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t think I am.

More than anything, drag queens just wanna have fun. And what’s so wrong/nasty/awful/sinful about that? Like any culture, there are outliers, of course (there certainly are among White Conservative Christian heterosexuals), but drag queens aren’t in it to harm others. It’s escapism, a chance to assume an alternate persona, if only for a while. For some, it’s fun; for others, it’s therapeutic, but who are those of us outside drag culture to judge what someone does for escapism/pleasure/therapy?

Though we don’t have its text and the Idaho Family Policy Center is being secretive about its potential sponsors, this bill should deeply concern anyone who cares about LGBTQ rights. Bans on public drag have historically been leveraged to police the gender presentation of queer and trans people. Anti-crossdressing laws in New York City in the 1960s limited the number of articles of clothes of the “opposite sex” to two or less. Police used these laws to justify raids on gay bars and other places in which LGBTQ people gathered, including the Stonewall Inn in 1969. Patrons of the bar eventually became so fed up with the raids that they rioted, and forced the police to barricade themselves inside the bar over the course of a week that summer.

And so, Pride was born, and every June, queer and trans people all over the world march in part to commemorate those who finally stood up for themselves in the face of an oppressive and unfair system.

Idaho’s anti-drag effort is part of a nationwide push to roll back LGBTQ rights, in some cases including the elimination of the right to same-sex marriage. However, with the Supreme Court sitting with a solid 6-3 conservative majority, such efforts are less fantastical now than they were two years ago.

The one thing I’ve always been grateful to my parents for is that they taught me to believe that people are people and that I’m no better or worse than anyone else. I didn’t grow up around diversity; my world was as White, Conservative, Christian, and heterosexual as it gets. But when I left home and encountered people who didn’t fit that mold, I was prepared to accept them. And I did.

I learned along the way that millions of Americans didn’t grow up with that acceptance in their hearts. Instead, they grew up learning to hate those who weren’t like them. I’ve never understood people like that, and I’ve spent my life trying to oppose haters and bigots, but hatred and bigotry are difficult nuts to crack.

Drag Queen Story Hour is hardly a threat to national security, our collective moral fiber, or our religious values. For anyone to think otherwise is to succumb to their fear, ignorance, and prejudice. They might see it differently if they’d take the time to understand what they’re so violently opposed to. They might understand that drag culture is merely people expressing themselves in a way that has meaning and value to them.

Drag culture poses less of a threat to children than the hatred, racism, and exclusion advocated by groups like the Proud Boys and sometimes their own parents. Then again, haters and bigots often lack the self-awareness necessary to recognize their shortcomings. That happens when you’re limited to reacting emotionally and are unable to think critically.

Ignorance and fear feed hatred and bigotry. Intelligence and understanding provide sustenance to tolerance and understanding.

Hatred is taxing and exhausting. It wears a person down because it requires a surplus of energy to maintain hatred. Love? That’s easy; it requires no effort and even less energy. Love sustains itself, and requires only that a person accept others for who and what they are.

I don’t know much about drag culture, but what I do know tells me that it poses no threat to me. Drag queens just wanna have fun? Hey, it might not be the way I find fulfillment and happiness, but if it gets some folks through the night, more power to ‘em, eh?

It takes all kinds. And I’m OK with that.