Was drag queen dance troupe The Diva League simply undeserving of praise for their “Disturbia” routine on America’s Got Talent? Or is Piers Morgan, the judge who commented that “a bunch of lip-synching old drag queens who can’t dance is not what America needs right now,” just out of touch with how gay culture works? (Naturally, fellow drag queen Sharon Osbourne enjoyed the routine.)
talent shows
Are Middle Aged Drag Queens Not What America Needs Right Now?
Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...
We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?
Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated
osocubano
Actually, I agreed with Piers.
And I was a drag queen in a previous life.
AlwaysGay
I thought they were good. No group can represent all of America. Piers is very insecure about his sexuality. His comment was basically “You’re gay, we don’t want that.” It’s anti-gay.
Mike L.
They good, but great-I was expecting more dance moves, they were too safe (although I think we should encourage talent and support talent within our very diverse community), but Piers was a mean bitch.
sal(the original)
can i call to support em??when you look at some of the US performers that make millions around the world they so take some sass and style,flavor from drag,gay culture!that judge is talking shaattt.lol
MuffinMan
“(Naturally, fellow drag queen Sharon Osbourne enjoyed the routine.)”
Why is it that this is the second or third time I seen this site refer to a female as a drag queen?
Laura
I haven’t been watching the show, is he always a douche like that? Would he have the balls to tell a naturally-born woman she’s “old”?
PS – Queerty, I hope you don’t mind, I put the video up on my site too (www.meetmygay.com). With credit, of course!!
Helga von ornstein
I watched “So you think you can dance” last night in it’s entirety (I think Brandon was robbed) and I thought back to the days when there was no way an obvious gay man could dance half naked (his shorts routine highlighted every inch of that pretty ass of his) and wondered what happened to the old queens who could perform.
No, it was not perfect but it showed the diversity of the gay community and did not stress twinks. I am so glad they found them and gave them their 15 minutes of fame. Too much emphasis is placed on youth in todays culture. That episode the other day when that trash called Twitter failed is a perfect example of the mindlessness that has taken over american culture as an overall whole. Many of them were actually lost and had no concept of how to simply call the person they wanted and talk to them verbally. I mean really.
I pray a solar flare comes and knocks out cell phones in my lifetime just to see peoples reaction of “what am I suppose to do now”.
The success of Rupaul’s drag race was not ignored by the producers of these types of shows. They are well aware their audience is 80% plus gay and it is they whose attention they are going to have to appeal to. As long as it is tastefully done (like So You Think You Can Dance) I am all for them, though I do hope Flotilla de Barge and Lady Bunny are left wherever it is they presently are.
Richard in DC
These girls are from DC, where I hail from, and I have been watching their routines for years. To be honest, on a regular basis they’re very mediocre. DC doesn’t know how to do drag at all. Their usual dances are much more about grabbing for dollars than anything else. There are other towns that have much much much better drag. On some level, Piers is right, there is nothing “new” or “fresh” or anything else about them, it’s just a tired old drag act. I would would love to see some drag queens who are doing something totally new…
M Shane
I just heard a report from someone who said that the drag in some of the cities in the South was just amazing. Performers literally spent thousands of dollars on costumeing. I know that there used to be a culture of drag queens in parts of San Francisco and New York City, and those queens took some great pride in how they looked to a degree becaus they often had to live as prostetutes. Performance Drag is another thing, and it is appalingly sad that some of the less appealiung representatives would appear, because drag is , while repressed, an important part of our culture.
So much of the spirit of drag, or anything creative in gay culture has been awash since the advent of the horrible dull assimilationist drivel hitting the fan and pathologizing anything that doesn’t ape hetrosexual norms.
No. 7 · Helga von ornstein ;
You said a mouthful about the mindlessness of American culture; the perversity of cellphones ( blackberries et al.) people’s Camlete abject inability to communicate or even think coherantly.
It’s an utter shame that gays would seek to find respectability in the most vapid, puerile of climates. But there you are: gays pretentiously call this “progress’ . Pathetic!
osocubano
@Richard in DC: I also live in DC and I know exactly what you mean… when’s the last time you saw Ella Fitzgerald doing a song you hadn’t seen her do before?
Or better yet, wearing something you hadn’t seen before?
Sergio
I agree with Piers, the show is about finding talent. They don’t sing, they weren’t great dancers, they were just a whole bunch of drag queens that everyone has seen before. If they actually sang live, that would be another story!
I’ve seen some drag queens look the part and sound the part, they have more talent than these lip synching draq queens could ever have.
Cbus Chris
I’ve never really been impressed by drag queens for the most part. Anyone can lip sing to a song and have a team of people make them look good.
However, the other night in Columbus, this drag queen did this New York number…..AMAZING. The problem is a majority of the people that do drag don’t really even have any talent so they try and overcompensate by being as vulgar as possible which doesn’t really work either.
Kropotkin
“Why is it that this is the second or third time I seen this site refer to a female as a drag queen?”
Because misogyny is accepted and promoted here at Queerty?
No Homophobama
What cracked me up was that he made a comment that the drag routine was not very “Barack Obama”. LOL. Obama = anti-gay even to old fart limey douchebags. The obvious is just so obvious.
The old fart limey douchebag is a bitchy CU Next Tuesday who is just bitter that his old flipity floppy ass appeals to no one but those selling adult diapers.
Helga von ornstein
@osocubano: I lived in DC for 8 years and felt like a total prisoner. I remember this “thing” calling itself Ella Fitzgerald you mentioned.
She was on a float in the gay pride parade back in the early 90’s strangling a cat (singing?) but midway through the song she had a “plant” near the float who handed her money and had the nerve to roll her eyes at the crowd when no one bought into it. Talk about no-shame or dignity queens. I do hope wherever she and Earline Budd are they stay there too.
Good lord, DC. Only a queen with political ambitions could love that place. That was the worst mistake of my life (moving there).
Jon/Shelby
I know the drag queens that were on the show and as much as I wanted them to succeed I felt underwhelmed. There is more talent at the Sunday “Washington Academy” in Washington, DC then anywhere in this town. They should have brought those girls out and had them to some of the big production numbers…..
Alex Sarmiento
I don’t think that the Diva League should have been brought back as a wildcard pick. But it’s less to do with their talents and gifts, and more to do with the fact that America’s Got Talent has so much bias and contrivance that it makes American Idol look positively fair by comparison. The whole show has been a debacle since season three, when that Paul Potts knock-off won. Season two was much better and less contrived. This season, they’re riding the Susan Boyle train and their Susan Boyle is chicken farmer Kevin Shorter, who isn’t even the most talented or interesting of the whole bunch. Plus, this show is created by the same people who did American Idol (Simon Cowell is the executive producer of this show, as well as the executive producer/co-judge on the British version), and they don’t care for gay people or gay culture (excluding Adam Lambert, but for all his success, I fear that Adam may be a one-off for Idol, and that next season they’ll be back to bashing gays). I’m sure that there are plenty of gay men and lesbians who have million-dollar talents and can headline a show in Las Vegas, but as long as Simon and Co. are running things, then the only queer acts we’ll be seeing are those that the producers and judges can easily dispense of so that their chosen acts can sail easily to $1,000,000.
Helga von ornstein
@Alex Sarmiento: Adam who??
galefan2004
Pierse is from across the fucking pond. What America doesn’t need is another foreigner trying to tell them what they need. That is what we have the big BO for. Joking! Seriously though, Pierse is also a very repressed homosexual and just can’t handle his own sexuality. Not to mention, they should have offered Jerry Springer more money to stay because once they lost him the ratings dropped considerably on America’s Got Talent.
galefan2004
@MuffinMan: I think its warranted. Sharon is very much a drag queen. Where is it written that drag queens have to be male? If you are presenting a heightened version of femininity instead of a realistic approach of what women really are then you can be classified as a drag queen in my opinion regardless of your genitalia. By the same rights, Dolly Parton is definitely a drag queen.
galefan2004
@Richard in DC: Yes, then you tell them that they are a bad drag show or that you simply don’t like them. You don’t say something stupid as shit about how America doesn’t need older drag queens. That is a comment on the scene not the performers. America very much needs its drag queens.
galefan2004
@M Shane: Akron, Ohio, has an AMAZING drag scene. Its nothing for the drag queens there to pump around 10,000 into costuming ever year. However, I don’t think any of them have ever had to work as prostitutes. They get paid for their performances, and the house queen gets paid for being the entertainment director as well. They get tips on top of it and they often can get anywhere from $20 to $100 in a single tip when they are the house diva. Normally they can bring in $500 a night in tips if its a good crowd. Not to mention, Akron gets the best of the best to come and perform on their stage because the entertainment director is simply amazing at booking talent.
galefan2004
@Helga von ornstein: Some washed up has been that thought he could sing would be my guess. Adam lost AI not because of any homophobia but because when he tried to hit a high note it made cats run under beds, glasses break, and dogs howl in pain. That wouldn’t have been that bad if Adam only realized he shouldn’t try to hit high notes, but apparently he was bloody fucking tone deaf as well.
GENE
@galefan2004:
Err..Adam made it to the final, so how can you state that he couldn’t sing. Simon Cowell said Adam had been one of the best and most original contestants that had ever had on the Idol stage. If you don’t like his style of music, then it’s fine, but anyone with an open mind can see the kid has some talent. Plus I dont think the actualy winner got the cover of Rolling Stone.
geoff
Grandma Lee all the way!!!!!!
Rick
There is WAY too much hating on the exciting art of female impersonation.
If you don’t like this act: fine. Just don’t pretend to be an expert on every lip synchronization based entertainer in the past and future of planet Earth.
It’s an art that will be around forever with or without all the self-satisfied haters.
Rick
Chicago
(the home of the Miss Continental, Miss Continental Plus, and Miss Elite contests.)
check out Sasha Colby: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_IQgqUu7KY
M Shane
No. 22 · galefan2004 It sounds as if Akron has Quite an Urban scene. There really is almost nothing where I live in Minneapolis. There is a huge gay populaton but they are spread around in suburbs. Everything is very reserved. They are lucky if they can keep 5-6 bars open at all.
While there were performance Queens in San Francisco, there were so many Gay people who had moved in that Prostitution was sometimes all that people who were taking hormones and living on the streets(virtually)could do.
Most of them took great pride in how they looked though and I sometimes knew people for a year or two before I realized that they weren,t really women.
M Shane
I’ve always been prety adventuresome and enjoyed sometimes just going out adncing at one of their hang outs(bars). Most of them were increadibly tough spirited and would pull out a twelve inch sissors and stam anyone who threatened to bash them- I’VE SEEN THAT! One freind of mine actually killed someone who attacked her.
Marty
If anyone agreed with Piers.
Than that person must be locked away.
What is more entertainment then Transsexuals.
Those girls are giving a show what i’ve haven’t seen in years.
They are perfect in all ways, like i saw in Berlin-Deutschland in the eighties & nineties from last century.
So enjoy such a great show & don’t be jealous or mean to them.
Use your hart if you got it.
Gurlene
I think………..better yet I KNOW I would have read that British queen all the way back to London. That comment was not necessary. I pray someone hits Simon Cowell in the mouth this season.
Britian too must be lacking in tv writers and creativity for shows like this to just take over the airways. I DO see a best 6 pac and bubble butt show aimed clandestinely (yeah right) at a gay audience being aired by March of next year.
But then after watching for all of 45 seconds one episode of Big Brother this season I think it has already arrived.
mikeandrewsdantescove
These DIVAS turned it out and could give Frank Marino’s show – La Cage a run for it’s funny.
Piers your an old drag queen for what you said.
Mike
http://jjadams928.blogspot.com/
hephaestion
The Diva League’s performance was so dark you literally couldn’t see them. They need to add some color and shine some lights on them. Otherwise you see nothing but what looks like shadows moving around and it’s just a waste of time. I thought this act was just horrible, but with light & color maybe they’d be fun.
The Diva League
First ,Thanks to whom who posted the video of our group.And for those whom left negative comment we appreciated them.However you took the time to watch that said enough.because you and your friends didn’t make it on the show to bad.everyone has there own opinion what talent is and guess your talent tryin to read.Just remember I was on TV Tues. an was viewed by 13.1 million people & Wed, 11.1 million.and you saw it enough said.Be real everyone know that drag queens & trans performer always performs alone in their Act. How often you see them doing a number together as a group besides opening or closing a show or with dancers. No Impersonator have the time to put in for a great production in 4 days, yes we got the call on Tues. and was in LA four days later to do the show as Wildcard. We had no control over we wore or our look, so stop negativity comments it’s TV Damn! We have done what no other Impersonator has done work together.You fill you can do better “Bring It”. Form a group 4drag Queens and 7 dancers and call me 202-421-6581 Shi-Queeta-Lee.And I Thank you Now “Fall In”o0o0o0oo around these parts.