Portland, Oregon just made LGBTQ+ history and raised nearly $300,000 for charity simultaneously. Queer-owned apparel company Wildfang teamed up with legendary drag club Darcelle XV to put on Drag-A-Thon July 10-12, a record-breaking 48-hour continuous drag show benefitting Trevor Project and bringing attention to the “criminalization of drag in 15+ states across the U.S.” The show took place at the Darrell […]
Tag: Drag
Posted inArts and Entertainment
Ways the LGBTQ+ community and allies are fighting back against drag bans
Drag has recently become a target of conservative leaders across the country. From drag bans to threats from white supremacy groups showing up to intimidate performers at drag brunches, drag and gender nonconformity have become a leading issue used to fire up evangelical and right-wing voters. This is far from the first time drag has […]
Posted inCommentary
Requiem for a drag queen
The New York Times obituary for Barry Humphries extolled the life and career of a beloved actor of stage, screen and television. You could be forgiven if you didn’t recognize his name, but surely not if you did not recognize his alter ego. Humphries made a seven-decades-long career in the United Kingdom, the U.S., and […]
Posted inTop Stories
Drag performers of color reflect on ‘queer joy’ – and the current backlash to their art
With roots stretching back thousands of years, drag performers have recently become a cultural Rorschach test. Just as the art form has catapulted into mainstream spaces – thanks, RuPaul – it has elicited fear in cultural conservatives, who, as the Bay Area Reporter has been reporting, are seeking to limit its public visibility through state […]
Posted inCommentary
The news never stops
Those of us who report the news affecting the LGBTQ+ community can often feel whiplashed. In my 48 years in LGBTQ+ news, I can’t remember many moments when there weren’t many important and exhausting stories happening at once. It seems we never have a moment to process one issue when another comes along. For me, […]
Posted inTop Stories
The power of Drag: A look back through images
Drag is nothing new. It has existed proudly and out loud for centuries. If you attended a performance of William Shakespeare’s plays at The Globe in 1599, your Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Desdemona would have been played by men dressed in drag. In the states, former enslaved person William Dorsey Swann (Born: March 1860 – Died: Dec. […]
Posted inCommentary
The revolution, as always, will be led by drag queens
At the root of revolution is revolt–a revolt against oppressive power. Once again in our history, we must rise up against a deranged right-wing front that is harnessing political and social power to legislate and discriminate LGBTQ+ people out of existence. Once again, the revolution will be led by drag queens. The earliest uprising of […]
Posted inNews
Drag under attack: A roundup of the latest news
Drag performances, in particular drag story hours, are being targeted around the country. News is Out member publications have been have been covering this issue in depth. Here’s a roundup of the latest news, from protests to legislation. Note that not all of the pushback against drag is coming from traditionally conservative areas. Mayoral candidates […]
Posted inCommentary
Make drag queens illegal? It’s happened before
The growing campaign to criminalize drag performers may seem quixotic given the mainstreaming of drag in popular culture. Indeed, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and its spinoffs threatened to make drag passé, except for the most extravagant, outrageous, and outlandish. But perhaps it was inevitable that a backlash was due, because anti-drag hysteria is nothing new; in […]