The PC police have landed and this time they have their sights set on drag queens.
Organizers of Free Pride Glasgow, which bills itself as the “anti-commercialist” alternative to the main Glasgow Pride festival, just announced that drag queens are officially banned from performing at their event next month because they “offensive,” not “appropriate,” and may make some trans people feel “uncomfortable.”
In a statement, organizers said: “After much discussion, the trans and non binary caucus decided not to have drag acts perform at the event. This does not mean that people of any gender can’t wear what they want to the event, we simply won’t be having any self-described drag acts perform at our Free Pride Event on the 22nd August.”
Related: Gay Men Officially Forbidden From Acting Like Black Women. Clapping, Too, Is Off Limits.
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The statement continued: “The decision was taken by transgender individuals who were uncomfortable with having drag performances at the event. It was felt that it would make some of those who were transgender or questioning their gender uncomfortable.”
The organization went on to say drag queens make gender “into a joke” and that “transgender individuals do not feel as though their gender identity is a joke.”
“This can particularly difficult for those who are not out and still present as the gender they were assigned at birth,” organizers said.
Related: Should We Ban Drag Queens From Pride Because They’re Misogynist And Transphobic?
In a response to the ban, Pride Glasgow released its own statement, calling the ban “wrong” and “going against what an inclusive event should be about.”
“Pride Glasgow believes that any community group should be given their place to flourish,” the statement said, “but that success should not be built on the negativity and ignorance towards other events, groups and like minded people and we are saddened to see that this is the direction that Free Pride has chosen to take.”
What do you think? Are drag queens transphobic? Should they be banned from Pride events? Sounds off in comments.
Dwight Hart
Karma is a Bonafide B. LOL
Daniel Sehbald
Good idea. Drag Queens are not serious and insult the real lgbt people who are born gay, trans or bi.
Chris-Tyler Young
So we’re gonna ban one of the groups who were influential in the gay rights movement and the movement for us to have Pride Parades? I see absolutely no way that this could backfire.
Dwight Hart
Daniel Sehbald – Totally Agree
Gothrykke
Quick, no body clap, you might cause an inferiority complex that can will lead to a shame spiral and mass suicide by the otherkin.
Congratulations, FPG, you just beat those ‘feminist’ NUtS and Tumblr by a long mile. It takes a lotta guts to curb an entire group of people because they make you feel uncomfortable, but you’ve done it! Yay, you, you’re an individual and you’re all special.
Go eat a rancid tofu bar made from Sarah Palin’s crotch rot.
Damian Haywood
Wow, just wow. I agree with Chris, Drag Queens are a HUGE part of the LGBTQ community, excluding them is wrong.
sportyguy1983
Non binary caucus? Huh?
Cagnazzo82
Didn’t a drag queen start the riot at Stonewall (aka kicking off the modern gay rights movement)?
This is getting a bit absurd.
DC Sheehan
Drag Kings banned also? What about if it’s a bearded guy in a dress?
Mitch Sandusky
Mon-Aaron Signal
This article is so frustrating. Great now we will fight internally, because the world clearly has become so great that equality reigns supreme. But my biggest piss off about this article is the fact that they think Drag Queens should be excluded because we offend Trans people. Now I have many friends who are Trans, who would never be offended by Drag Queens, simply because they still relate to the struggles and triumphs of the LGBTI scene and community. However this implies that who wish to live their lives as women, be in a society that is based around them being accepted as woman, however they still wish to hold on to their comfort or security of the LGBTI scene and stamp out the difference that a general society won’t accept. I say piss off with your bullshit. If you want to live and be accepted as a woman in mainstream society, great all the power to you, but don’t forget that before you put on your first touch of lip gloss, it was drag queens, gay men, lesbians and your fore sisters who stood side by side and demanded mainstream society open their minds so that you can have your little bitch about how offended you are about a drag queen. Go be a woman, find your man, bake scones, don’t care what they do, but seriously creating bitchiness amongst peers is just pathetic attempt at creating a riff that never needed creating …… Grrrr
Sidney Davies
They’re not banned in Manitoba!
jason smeds
I’m so glad that the drag queens got banned. They are not a symbol of gay rights in any way, shape or form.
In fact, they look as if they are copying the exact stereotypes which straight guys appreciate in women. Go away, drag queens.
And, no, the drag queens did not kick off the modern gay rights movement. The modern gay rights movement in the USA was kicked off in the 1920’s. Illinois became the first state to decriminalize homosexuality in 1961, years before Stonewall.
Message to newbies to the gay rights movement: you need to scrub up on your history.
Kathryn Henry
Offensive? They practically invented gay pride!
Dennis Patrick Ellis
W T F ?
Tino Valentino
Not saying this is a right move but should be a wake up call to not only drag queens but all of the bitchy nasty vile shady people in the lgbt community. No need for hate or competition in our own community. Grow up or we won’t be taken seriously.
Craig Shapiro
This sounds like the beginning of that delusionary Islamic crap. First ban together to imansepate our equality and right to live as are, then once we achieve our goal start singeling out members of OUR family. Why? Evidently you are clueless to the or rather bigoted to the plight and motivational desires of Drag Queens. These are an extremely courageous people, who have a broader sence of
Craig Shapiro
Who have a broader sence of style and expression. What’s next, no flannel shirts, jesns and work boots for lesbians? This ban is ludicrous and the beginning of a separatist mentality in OUR family. Remember as recently as the early 1960’s members of OUR community were draged out of clubs and homes and killed by Police for being Gay. This is throwing our own to the Wolves. Becarefull here, cause you can bet they’ll come back leading the pack. AND there’s nothing as fearless and ferocious as a Wolf protecting there own.
Jarodd Washington
Drag queen rules. I’m one and I show respect to all who are in our gay world. The nice one not the nasty one I leave nasty drags alone
Jarodd Washington
We just got to all just get along
jason smeds
Drag queens make a mockery of women. I’m amazed that more women don’t speak out against them.
Homosexual men need to realize that drag queens are not symbolic of male homosexuality at all. In fact, drag queens weaken the power of male homosexuality.
Cagnazzo82
@jason smeds: Jason. You’re not Stalin.
You can’t write people out of history just because you don’t like them.
Drag Queens are inextricably linked with the gay rights movement.
Again, just because you seem to have something personal against them doesn’t mean you can write them out of the history books.
Ian Reeve
when is D going to be added to LGBT?
Johnny Jaqua
They wouldn’t be fun if they weren’t offencive.
Shaun Adams
Boooo!
Ladbrook
Yeah, well, we wouldn’t want to make anyone “uncomfortable,” would we. Where’s RuPaul when we need her?
Spend one hour on a college campus these days and you’ll quickly learn that “I’m uncomfortable” is the new “shut up because I’m not smart enough to debate you.”
PS: Jason smeds make me feel uncomfortable… so can we ban him, too?
Tony Chaplinski
let us not turn on ourselves. The haters will use this against us.
Brettly43
@jason smeds: Drag Queens started gay pride, they’d had enough of the crap that the cops were doing, and marched, along with Trans people. So for drag queens to be banned, is like saying rosa parks cant take place at a black civil rights movement
Shaun Adams
Drag queens are fucking awesome! There fun and funny and all that good stuff!
Hawg G Wilde
Well…so is “black face” and “brown face”…can’t have your cake and eat it too I don’t reckon!!!
hellogorgeous
@Daniel Sehbald: Have you ever been to Christopher street? I wish you could take a time machine back to 1969, and I bet if you could, you wouldn’t say that to the brave queens who fought the REAL homophobic enemies who were literally trying to exterminate us. They risked their lives on the front line (for us – the future), but because they were men wearing stilettos and wigs, that makes them an “insult” to the LGBT community? However you feel about drag, whether you appreciate it or not, please don’t condemn a rich and extremely complex part of our history as “not serious.”
Giancarlo85
@Chris-Tyler Young: EXACTLY.
Drag Queens started it all and were key to the movement. And now they are being banned? For what? Because some stupid asshole couldn’t handle them?
@jason smeds: You have no clue about the history of the movement and you are nothing more than a disgusting revisionist.
Radford Chinnery
what that’s crazy
Giancarlo85
@hellogorgeous: AGREED! Don’t pay attention to these ARM CHAIR “activists”. They want to kick out drag queens… because they think they are being “misrepresented”.
I can’t stand these fake closet queens who insult our community’s history because of their own ego.
Fidel Lee
preposterous!!! unacceptable!!! idiots!!! they should be boycotted!!!
Chuck Turner
There was a particular transgender in Key West who felt the world revolved around her. Sounds like a few made it to Glasgow as well!
edtaylorky
@jason smeds: What do you even know about drag?
Drag queens play with prescribed social aspects of gender, not actual gender. No woman (trans or cis) would ever say “the nature of myself is my eyelashes and hair” and no man (cis or trans) would say that his identity and essence could be found in a beard or lumberjack shirt.
Drag queens CLAIM all expression as belonging to all of us (male, female, both, inbetween, or neither) by exposing the ridiculous idea that we are these trappings (eyeliner, make up, stockings) … those things might help express us, they might help us demonstrate a sense of who we are, but by saying that it’s offensive for (a self identified) man (cis or trans) to put on the apparel of socially prescribed femininity gets us right back to square one because THAT’S exactly what is written in the Bible (Old Testament) and was used to oppress LGBT people for thousands of years!
Saying that drag queens mock women reduces women (trans or cis) to things you can buy in a store. Saying that they devalue gay men is misogynist and works against gay liberation because it works from the idea that drag queens are less than because they don’t take seriously the idea that they must define their gender through the external or that using “women’s things” make them less than non drag queens.
Scott Lawrence
Good! Now let the drag queens and kings host there own pride which will be far more original and not a corporate sponsored event! Pride these days is not when it used to be and it needs a drag queen makeover!
Gregg Ray
but ya gotta admit – some of the Queens ARE rather offensive, just sayin, and not cos they’re Queens mind you – but because of the way they act without respect for anyone
Andrew Lopez
And then the trans community decides to segregate themselves again and wonders why the LGB community doesn’t do everything they can to help. Why many LGB members tend to stay away from trans issues for fear of being labeled heteronormative, transphobic, heterosexist, or some other word they want to make up and sling at everyone in their own family.
Alexi Marti
Wow, drag is a show. You can’t ban a type of acting! That’s just rude!
David O'Flaherty
What a bunch nuts. I wouldn’t be going to that festival
Jonny B. Mitchell
I’m just without words. Drag Queens have been such an ideal part of gay rights history. I’m very sadden at this.
Giancarlo85
@Andrew Lopez: There is no such thing as the “LGB” community. Goodness me… some love to make up acronyms. And you don’t speak for everyone you troll.
Glücklich
Alternative headline:
Glasgow Free Pride Cancelled Due to Lack of Interest in Fun-Free Non-Event; Organizers Offended.
Richard Burnside
The powers that be want only family values which means no sex or drag queens.
Glücklich
Second Alternative Headline:
Glasgow Drag Queens Union Co-heads Tawdry Hepburn, Killda Swinton Respond to Free Pride Ban: ‘Who?’
jwtraveler
@Chris-Tyler Young: Totally agree.@Daniel Sehbald: @Dwight Hart: Right. Let the most visible and most vocal people to the hard work for us. Then when we don’t need them anymore, get rid of them because they make some people feel uncomfortable.
Interesting that the transgender folks want the drag queens banned to be sensitive to their feelings, but demand to have access to women-only restrooms and locker rooms even when women say they feel uncomfortable seeing a 6’3″ transwoman with a penis in the shower. Apparently the transgender people are the only ones whose sensitivity is to be considered. H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y.
Glücklich
Third Alternative Headline:
Nose Shot Off to Spite Face
Jonathonz
Lol Glucklich! My thoughts exactly. I’m sure their little event will be very sad and boring.
Navalator
@Cagnazzo82: YES! It was indeed bunch of drag queens that beat the hell out of the fascist New York cops at the Stonewall Inn and that kick-started the gay freedom movement that progressed with the latest SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage.
Joel Quinones
wouldn’t think this was an issue in the UK
broadshoulder
They don’t like anybody up in Glasgow! Especially Drag queens with English accents. Moaning for the sake of moaning – thats there national sport..
Cobalt Blue
Their presence are disruptive and I don’t think to show men that are dressed half as a woman and half as a clown gives recognition or respect to gay and lesbians as a whole group. It’ll be better if they start to search representation in our society by themselves detached for the main group.
Glücklich
@Cobalt Blue:
Sooooo….we *all* have to enjoy the same things?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52vK2-Dv1TA
Timothy Herbert
this is like cutting off your nose to spite your face… seriously.
Stonewall… STONEWALL!
Chris
@Johnny Jaqua: Agreed. If a drag queen’s not offensive to someone, then she’s not doing it right. ….. Some people may think that it’s progress to ban them. But I think it’s incredibly homo-genizing of who we are. Every outside group has comedians who satirize and mock the insiders and the outsiders, the latter with a knowing laugh. Ours come dressed in drag.
Finrod
It’s not as if anyone besides the organizers is going to attend Dull Pride Glasgow when they could go to a fun event instead.
aliengod
Drag queens have a much deeper history with the LGB community than “trans”. This is exactly why we should keep away from people like @Giancrazy85 who insist on adding a new letter for every ridiculous group that want to tag on to our acronym. When we invite in every whacko agenda to our community, this is what happens.
Ian Simpson
Pride glasgow fucking it up for another year. They couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. Makes me embarrassed to be glaswegian.
Marvin Vann
Sad. Sounds like some Glaswegian gays need to read up on the history of gay liberation.
Dag Espen Thygesen
This is too stupid. Who ever is in charge should step down.
Silvia Rea Morini
Same story of BDSM community: we are banned and discriminate for time. In Italy in 2015 gay pride, we stay here, but the way to eliminate the ignorance in BDSM lifestyle is so far. Stupid book/movies like”50 shades of grey” is so dangerous: it’s NOT BDSM. People prefer to judge: it’s more simple to try to understand. Every discrimination have a stupid face.
Andrew Danger Mccurdy
This isn’t Gona end well. If the world hasn’t noticed drag queens live up to the title an don’t like to be told by any one what they can an can’t do.
Silvia Rea Morini
Same story of BDSM community: we are banned and discriminate for time. In Italy in 2015 gay pride, we stay here, but the way to eliminate the ignorance in BDSM lifestyle is so far. And stupid book/movies like”50 shades of grey” is so dangerous: it’s NOT BDSM. People prefer to judge: it’s more simple, to try to understand need a brain. Every discrimination have a stupid face.
RobvR
There are very sensitive pro’s and con’s in this discussion. I don’t feel related whatsoever with drag queens. In fact, I’m getting a bit tired having to explain each time to straight friends that being gay is different than being a drag queen. In fact I don’t really like them. However, they’ve always been part of the gay scene and we owe them much. And why shouldn’t the old “if they don’t bother you, why should you bother them?” apply to the gays but not to the drags? And this is about a GAYpride, not a TRANSpride. I feel more related to my female straight friends than to any transgender. Don’t get me wrong, I do think they should supported, but why by the gays? It’s completely different. Linking transgenderism and homosexuality (nowadays even with I’s and Q’s, let’s see if it is 14 letters long in a decade) is not making these issues more clear to outsiders.
Jason Updegraff
I’m just sorta confused … this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of or been told that trans people just wanting to transition and never be lumped with the “fags/gays” again. most trans male to female people I’ve met if passable hope to just fall into straight society and never have to talk about their “T” or “D” again…. that pass ability is the deciding factor. if you’re manly and trans of course your gonna be more gay bar oriented… if you pass as a real girl you’re gonna try to play” bio-girl”
orrine
‘Drag queens don’t represent LGBT’? ‘Drag queens represent traditional woman stereotype’? What is this? LGBT rights movement became the same straight were: you can’t be this and you can’t be that, you must abide to stupid rules and boundaries.
Where did all inclusiveness and freedom gone to?
Jacob23
This is the best story I have read on Queerty! I love it! An excellent result for a completely warped reason, and the whole drama will underscore for Scottish LGBs the insanity of “LGBT.”
The addition of the “T” has now led to attacks on lesbians including boycotts of lesbian organizations, calls for the abolition of bisexuality, and now the banning of the gay tradition of drag. Anyone seeing a pattern here? The L, the B and the G all under attack by the T. But how did the T get here anyway? It’s not even a sexual orientation and most Ts are straight.
The T arrived the way any parasite arrives. It enters the host and for a time attempts to lay low, so as not to trigger any immune response. After a time, it grows and strengthens and then asserts itself. It attempts to control the host, forcing the host to do its bidding and eventually robbing the host of its own agency and the ability to act in its own best interests.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am delighted to see drag banned. It should have been banned a long time ago. It’s degrading to gay men to portray us as wannabe women. It’s a product of a bygone era. But that’s not they banned it. They banned it in order to cater to a bunch of mostly-heterosexual men. “LGBT” has numbed the minds of those Scottish LGBs and led them to believe that they are “one people” with heterosexual transsexuals, crossdressers and hermaphrodites. A better approach would be to tell that gaggle of mostly-straight colonizers that they can hit the road.
Cagnazzo82
@Jacob23: Jacob, I could not agree with you more. 100% you are absolutely correct.
The ‘T’ is getting out of hand. And if it keeps up, the L, the G, and the B are going to have to have a serious talk with the ‘T’ to get them back in line.
asby
I am offended by guys in tank tops…..Where are my rights!
Ryan James Breakwell
Its not the main pride event thats banned them its an outside group who organise a separate event! The main stage still has several drag queens on the main stage and theyr still allowed to go…i live here where its happened
David Chachki
If it wasn’t for drag queens yall wouldn’t exist cause yall start as us.fuckin hatin ass traders.
David Chachki
We are a community stop being jealous.fuckin trannies.
twigg
alright so an organization named “free pride glasgow” which claims to be an anti-commercial alternative to “glasgow pride” believes that it would make trans people uncomfortable to see someone expressing their own sense of sexuality, sure that makes a lot of sense .
i would like to add that not all drag queens are bitchy and not all gay people are gracious, i know some straight-looking gay people who can bitch it up with the best of them .
JURIE
Really , we all fought so hard to be equal, now transgender people feel offended. What next? Who next ?
William Meyer
Just wrong. Are we now discriminating? Seems to be so.
Paul Matwiow
What a drag!
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: Alienturd is back at it… With more remarks of stupidity. There is no such thing as LGB. Stop making up acronyms. And yes, trans people were at Stonewall. I can’t stand idiots like you who revise history because of your own ego. People like you are incredibly dangerous.
@Jacob23: You are dumb. Of course you like what happened. And you also show you have no mental power. Drag queens are not trans. And the way you attack trans people by calling them parasites shows how much of a delusional hateful fuck up you really are.
And the way you denigrate drag queens and trans people shows how much of an ignoramus you really are. A product of a bygone era? Are you kidding me? Drag queens do their own thing and you do yours. If you feel so misrepresented, closet queen, get out there and do something about it. You are nothing more than a bigot and armchair activist.
By the way, you are a conformist and you want to please straight people all the time. Not all trans, drag queens or crossdressers are straight. In fact many aren’t.
aliengod
@Giancarlo85: Based on the other comments, @Giancrazy85, I’m far from being alone in my thinking. And how dull can you be to not know the meaning of the LGB acronym? I’ll tell you again, it stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual”. Go back to practicing your makeup, dimwit.
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: And I am glad you don’t speak for anyone but yourself. Someone as hateful as you would cause major damage to the community.
Cam
The Trans Community Motto: Why fight against actual bigots and bigotry, when we can spend all of our time attacking gays, lesbians, and anybody else within the community.
Never forget that Trans leadership, on the day marriage became legal on New York State, never bothered to give the community one day of piece but rather attacked gays and lesbians in an editorial.
And remember when others in the Trans community tried to defend the attacks on RuPaul by claiming that they were only upset about email/she mail and that they had nothing against Ru or drag? Well, this proves that that was an obvious lie. If you ever read a Trans site, 90% of it is commentary attacking gays, lesbians, and bisexuals, with hardly anything talking about the major bigotry out there amongst politicians, other groups and the like.
I don’t think individuals in the community support this as much, but they need to get a handle on the out of control hatred their groups seem to have for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals.
JessPH
They attacked RuPaul. They heckled an LGBT-friendly president. They blocked a Pridefest parade in Denver. And now this. Ugh. The trans community is attacking the wrong people.
Cy
Drag queens are nothing more than clowns, albeit often rude, offensive and obnoxious clowns. While I don’t think anyone should be banned from a festival, I certainly see nothing wrong with not including them in a performance lineup.
Stefano
Trans people are homophobes
Glücklich
@asby:
Agreed. Tank tops are underwear. I don’t mind them if one is out in the park enjoying the sunshine and fresh air, but they don’t belong in eateries or bars, on a train, in a store, etc. unless they’re UNDER something else.
Cam
@Cy: said… “Drag queens are nothing more than clowns, albeit often rude, offensive and obnoxious clowns.”
__________________________________________
Isn’t it funny just how much Trans Activists sound like Rush Limbaugh?
Steve Ollerenshaw
FFS, Stonewall ring any bells? If it wasn’t for drag queens with Molotov cocktails gay rights in the western world would look very different today. Try taking offence at the religious extremists who would have you put to death because of who you are or who you love!
edtaylorky
This is scary in a way. It’s similar to the UK National Union of Students banning drag because it is somehow “appropriation” and that it deconstructs social gender.
This is the worst kind of thought policing because it parades around as being in the interest of “protecting people.”
What it does is suggest that I should have to further define myself by someone else’s standards.
Some radical activists (certainly not representing all trans people or even all activists) want to assert the idea that skirts and eyelashes are inherently only for women and that use of them by people who identify as men (or who refuse to label their identity) is wrong.
Women are not false eyelashes and makeup. These activists only let [humans born with a penis] wear dresses or makeup if they say out loud that they are women.
Drag is not blackface because eyelashes and pantyhose are NOT something women (trans or cis) are born with … Society gives (or forces or allows) them these things.
Any trans (or cis) person can tell you that their gender is not about playing dress up. It’s deep and inherent to their personhood. It is an inexorable aspect of who they are. They can express it via outside items (like those used by drag queens to “transform”), but they are more than that.
Any person (cis or trans) whose sense of self is dependent upon putting other people into a careful box is problematic. I wouldn’t dress or act a certain way because a conservative evangelical yelled it at me, and I see no need to suddenly conform to social expectations of gender when a “liberal” activist yells the same thing.
Stefano
@Cy: Men and women in Leather are nothing more than clowns, albeit often rude, offensive and obnoxious clowns. While i don’t think anyone should be banned from a festival, i certainly see nothing wrong with not including them in the parade and Prides festival.
Everything’s wrong with Gay Prides ! oh i mean Everything’s wrong with LGBTTIQQ2SA Prides !
Maybe it’s time for us to move on? And sorry if i may offend some people (lol) but we have nothing in common with Trans people except that we are a minority. And please stop living in the past…we are no longer in 1969 but in 2015.
DCFarmboy
eventually, the drag queens will be viewed as blackface performers are today.
desmond94114
@Daniel Sehbald: some bit of history. Drag Queens revolted at Stonewall which lead to what we have today. The first openly gay man to run for public office was a drag queen. They volunteer a ton of time performing at fund raisers that raise awareness, fight for total equality, and human rights. They are just as much a part of the LGBT community and probably more so than many of us. Saying they don’t belittles everything we worked together as a community to change in order to have the world we have now. As a drag queen once said to me “some drag queens knocked down the doors we walk through today”.
AtticusBennett
it takes an act of profound willful ignorance to attempt to state that drag has no place in celebrations of the LGBT movement and queer liberation.
gender-nonconformity is a part of the movement. drag is not, in any form, mocking transgender people but actually is a commentary on heteronormativity and heterosexism and masculinity.
seriously, folks. do your research.
every homo in the world owes their sorry @ss to drag queens.
AtticusBennett
@Stefano: your comment sounds like every anti-pride sentiment spewed by a boy who’s still living each day worrying what Straight People Think.
pride is about leather. it’s about being weird. it’s a time to celebrate whatever it is you want to celebrate about yourself without, for once, worrying that “anti-gay straight people will hate you for it”
you should try it, for once.
PRIDE is a sore spot for boys from anti-gay communities who never grew the spines to stand up to them.
Guy Larcher
What next? The muscle jocks need to keep their shirts on because the bears feel uncomfortable? The alpha leather males frighten the twinks? Be careful to understand lgbt history before it comes back to bite you in the ass. Pride is for everyone. The lesbian and gay community (especially drag queens) have paved the way (in many respects) for the trans community. It is a shame that changing sex could also cause a lack of appreciation for history, a loss of a sense of humour , and the need to separate oneself from the community who attempted to nurture and foster their growth.
edtaylorky
@AtticusBennett:Amen! We have to be vocal about this. It doesn’t make sense that a festival of pride is being dictated by straight people (not all trans people are straight, but the majority are) who find gay men’s gender expression offensive.
Did I fall into an alternative universe?
Gender expression is not gender identity.
Tobi
I’ve always understood why the T got tagged onto LGB, without us them and their cause would have been invisible. That doesn’t change the fact that gender dysphoria has nothing to do with same sex relations. Nothing. So, now we’ve served our purpose and raised their profile a wee bit, it’s time the T’s packed up their kits and kaboodles along with their hate and tried standing on their own two feet for a change. I’d also be grateful if they’d take the B’s with them, as I’ve never known what they wanted, except not to be labelled gay.
Charles Willy Homan
This is dumb. LGBT is going to be segregated, really?
AzLights
What the hell?! As a lesbian, I don’t feel upset or marginalized by drag queens. I’ve know many over the years and I think they’re great. And where would our movement be if the ladies hadn’t fought back at Stonewall?
@Tobi Sadly, I tend to agree. So many trans wasn’t NOTHING to do with the L, G, and B part of the community. If a transwoman is threatened or upset by drag queens, she can just get over it. I hope our queens are around for a LONG time to come.
Little story: I have a friend who thought she was trans. However she CANNOT have the surgeries or take the hormones because of some very severe health problems. Well, when she mentioned this on a trans board, she was asked why she was there and told she wasn’t really a transman. Crimey, they can’t even treat one of their own decently! To this day she is very hurt by it all.
DonW
@jason smeds: You really don’t have to worry about seeing drag queens at Pride because it’s painfully obvious you’ve never had the b@lls to attend.
Tobi
@AzLights: I’d love to know whether this is just a small vocal minority or some kind of recent trend. I’ve drank and danced with more than a few male>female transgender individuals in my time, especially during the 70’s-80’s and they loved and were loved by all sections of the gay community. What the f— happened?!!
DonW
@Tobi: Hey now, let’s give the trans-bashing a rest. Claiming trans folk are “hating” us LGB’s is like the Christians claiming they’re being “oppressed” by gays. Trans women are murdered at a shocking rate, and face social rejection, suicide, employment and housing discrimination on a par with what gays faced 50 years ago. Of course they’re angry — they have a right to be.
Cam
If you want to see how the Trans Community helps others, look no further than Chaz Bono and Carmen Cararra.
RuPaul gave them both tons of exposure, yet when a trans activist who was later fired, but not until she attacked ANOTHER TRANS PERSON, went after RuPaul, they both jumped on the bandwagon.
Same thing, the Trans community never seems to attack actual bigots, they just spend all of their time attacking Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals.
Tobi
@DonW: I think you’ll find young black men are murdered at a shocking rate too. So, do we add them into LGBT? How about the furries and the zoo crew? I saw this in the 70’s when we were pressured to accept PIE and NAMBLA even though the majority of us were dead set against letting them in. I’m perfectly happy that my personal fight is exclusively for homosexual equality, gay liberation, etc. It doesn’t mean that I don’t support other causes, I’ve contributed financially to the trans fight, demonstrated, written letters, fund raised, etc. I just don’t see why my cause has to be lumped in with everyone else’s very different causes.
o.codone
@Giancarlo85: You are the angriest person ever to post on Queerty. Take a pill, we can’t stand much more.
CourtzH20
@broadshoulder: I think you have no idea what you’re talking about and should stop generalising everyone in Glasgow. Because what you’re saying isn’t true at all and I find it very highly offensive.
AtticusBennett
btw 0 this is not being done out of response to complaints from “the transgender community” at all. the transgender community, en masse, lodged no such complaints. at all. this is the whinging of a bitter few people, who are all but ignoring the realities of our COLLECTIVE liberation movement.
GG
“We aren’t going to allow you to participate because you make other participants uncomfortable.”
Many versions of this throughout history. Here are a couple:
“We aren’t going to allow gays to march in the St. Paddy’s day parade because they make others (straight men) feel uncomfortable (threatened).”
“We aren’t going to allow black folk to eat at the same counter because doing so would make others uncomfortable.”
As they used to say, “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”
Will Moor
@jason smeds: I didn’t know you cared about women.
edtaylorky
@AtticusBennett: Agreed. I like to call the individuals were talking about DERTAs (Drag exclusionist radical trans activists). They are certainly a minority, as I know many a few trans individuals who adore drag culture, and can think of many trans queens. In fact, the lines used to be so blurry that there was significant intersectionality between women who were mtf and men who expressed themselves through drag. Moreover, a couple of my friends (and celebrities like Carmen Carerra and Monica Beverlyhills) used drag as a safe(r) means to explore markedly feminine expression before coming out as trans.
@Everyone: trans people aren’t the enemy. Conservative, conventional, exclusionary, cis-queer-phobic trans radical exclusionists are–enough qualifiers to surely make them a minority 🙂
MMark
Drag Queens have been part of the Gay community for FAR longer than the Trans community have, and before we became LGBTQ-XYZ and any other letter we can think of…
Most drag queens (In my experience anyway) are Gay men – How did we end up with the trans community as part of the gay community? Especially considering a lot don’t seem to self identify as Gay or Bisexual…
Hank Trout
So much for “inclusion” — and you know as well as I do that if another event at Pride banned transgender people, there’d be hell to pay for breakfast!
Gregory McDaniel
We must be against bigotry
LydiaBlarbslarg
Thanks for making us (trans folks) look like complete and utter morons again (and I don’t mean Queerty when I say that). This is the Exact kind of thing that completely has the opposite effect on the trans community that it alleges to intend. Trans people like these who seem so clearly uninformed and ignorant about what Drag Queens and Kings have done to help are Not the majority of trans people. I am so entirely sick of hearing about this kind of garbage. There are so many better ways to help make progress, but then this stuff happens and it is no surprise reading some of the very negative comments here and elsewhere from people who would logically be allies (regardless of it being a LGBT, whatever community. Yeah, I know that’s a whole other can of worms that everywhere here is already in love with debating) if more time was being spent on useful information and not on being angry for ridiculous reasons.
CaliKyle
@Daniel Sehbald: How are drag queens not “real lgbt people?” I’ve never met or known of a drag queen who wasn’t gay or bi, and more than a few of them do eventually transition to female. The men I know who are queens were attracted to drag not as a means of making fun of anyone but because it provided an outlet for them to express their feminine side, their love of make up and costuming/fashion and their desire to perform on stage. They also value the “sisterhood” drag provides, especially since they are forced to deal with too many like you from the LGBT community who instead of embracing them as part of the metaphorical rainbow reject them as frivolous clowns who have no legitimate place in society. A man who has the balls to put on a dress and go out in public knowing the potential hate and violence he might face is far more courageous and proactive in advancing LGBT acceptance and rights than the cowardly bigots who seek to exclude drag artists from their rightful place in our community.
Zodinsbrother
I think what these people need to remember that gender identity isn’t just about trans or cis. There are others too, bigender or those who may be cis/gay or cis/het but still feel that part of their identity is across gender barriers. And drag is a form of that. This event says it doesn’t discriminate on the grounds of gender but by excluding drag acts it is doing that, it is taking the side of one non-binary group, and an activist minority of that group, against a different group of people who express their non-binary gender identity in a different way. It’s just stupid and offensive,
Petronius Arbiter II
I think Free Pride Glasgow is wrong on this, but it IS their parade, and their parade permit, and in this instance, they do have a right to be wrong, and I respect that.
Giancarlo85
@aliengod: You and who else? Jacob23? Oh please. You two are probably the same poster. there is no fucking thing as LGB. Stop making shit up. There never has been an “LGB” community and only a braindead fool like you can believe that. You are the real dimwit here… a dimwitted idiotic right winger.
@o.codone: Oh please. Go get a reality check. Nobody even responds to your garbage when you post on here.
You transphobic sociopaths are something else. You don’t know SHIT about anyone and you live in a closet all day.
Valerie Anderson
Redic
Jacob23
@Tobi: What happened was “LGBT.” LGBT corralled 2 discrete groups and forced them to pretend that they were 1. It created dependency by Ts on LGBs and an entitlement mindset, whereby Ts expect and DEMAND that LGBs sacrifice their own interests in favor of T interests. When those expectations are not met, which is almost always the case, the Ts rage against LGBs. Go to any trans activist blog and you’ll see many vivid examples of this.
The constant demands and attacks in turn create hostility among LGBs. Both groups were on fairly good terms prior to the invention of LGBT. They were best described as friends and sometimes were allies on specific issues. LGBT destroyed all the good will and in its place created a poisonous relationship. You see that in this story from Scotland, but also in the attacks on Dan Savage, Ru Paul and NPH, in the violent attacks on lesbians in Michigan, in the recent demands that bisexuals be eliminated from LGBT and that bisexuality be declared transphobic, and on and on. LGBT is a lie, and you can’t have a community based on a lie. Sooner or later, it will come apart and we will hopefully return to the earlier state of friendship.
JR Bull
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=120722828268325&set=a.112864592387482.1073741826.100009918246988&type=1&theater 1PRIDE1LOVE YALL
Avery Alvarez
I think it’s an incredibly extreme position.
I mean, was there really a push for this?
Kurtis Mantronik
drag queens are OFFENSIVE and they laud their cis privilege over the trans communities and are often the MOST transphobic (feel entitled to use trans slurs like tr***y and l*****y/needlessly catty)
Giancarlo85
@Jacob23: You vapid airheaded extremist. You have no right to exclude anyone from the movement. The only people getting out of hand are people like you. You are incredibly violent and dangerous to the movement. It is closet queens like you that give gay people a bad name. Every single fucking post you make is about attacking trans people. Heck… I even see you attack other gay men because they are more feminine than you like. You are nothing more than a thug with no real argument or evidence to back up your idiotic claims.
Your entire argument is a big fucking lie and I am glad horrible and vindictive people like you have no sway or power. You make us all look bad. Please remove yourself from the community. The community has enough problems… And don’t need hateful hypocrites like you screwing things up further.
John D. Plume
http://s4s.wikia.com/wiki/File:Die-cis-scum.jpg
John D. Plume
PHOTO: Trans person menacingly holding a baseball bat with the words “Die Cis Scum” written like a tattoo on an arm.
http://s4s.wikia.com/wiki/File:Die-cis-scum.jpg
Giancarlo85
Oh that’s great. So post a picture and claim it represents all trans people.
You know what I think? Some of you are more insecure in your own bodies… and the fact that trans people even exist assaults your entire being.
Cam
@Giancarlo85: said… “Oh that’s great. So post a picture and claim it represents all trans people.”
__________________
Yeah, isn’t that weird, it would be kind of like Trans people claiming that Drag Queens insult all of them, are all clowns, and should be kept out of Pride because a few Trans people have decided they hate them.
LucyVersi
Did anyone actually read the article? They banned Drag ACTS, not people dressing in drag. You know, people who professionally entertain by being ‘biological men dressing and acting like women because isn’t that inherently funny?’. Can’t imagine why some trans people might find that offensive.
AzLights
@DonW: I wish I knew. I don’t get all the nonsense that some of the trans community have been doing. They managed to get MichFest shut down because it wasn’t “trans-inclusive” enough. And I’m just tired of walking around on eggshells. This newer generation of transpeople–well, I just don’t get them. I’ve known some really super trans folk but I’m just fed up with the whole thing and wouldn’t shed a tear if the trans folk went their way and we went ours.
AzLights
@LucyVersi: Then they can just get the hell over it. Our drag queens were around LONG before the transpeople even joined in. Drag entertainment is part of gay culture and if the trans community doesn’t like it, they don’t have to come to Pride. And what are a bunch of women who identify as straight doing trying to call the shots for the rest of the lesbian and gay community anyhow? Keep it up and you will only alienate more people.
LucyVersi
@AzLights: *shrugs* If that’s your attitude, then don’t expect them to worry too much about your feelings, either. As for all the ‘trans people are all so sensitive, why can’t they let us have our fun’ crap on here, do you people even hear yourselves? That’s how straight bigots feel about you. Oh, and ‘Drag Queens were around before trans people stood up for themselves so we shouldn’t care how they feel’, well sure. That’s a great argument. The Old Days were so great, we should definitely go back to the 50s. Why not go back to before drag queens stood up for themselves, and throw them in prison? After all, Christian extremism and homophobia predate drag queens.
Seriously, does anyone want to calm down, or just throw hyperbole, ignorance, and hatred around?
ElainCorrine
As a trans woman I have to say that this is wrong. Drag Queens rock and god knows I have gotten some awesome makeup tips from them on how to mask the more masculine features of my face. I personally am NOT offended by Drag Queens.. I love them and think this decision should be reversed.
charmin88
This is crazy. Drag Queens are an important part of the Gay Community. It’s part of our heritage. I hate when we fight amongst ourselves it’s silly and Counter productive
Denver_Bear
A lot of trans people LOVE to point out that they are NOT gay, so I’ve often wondered why they are grouped in with the GLB movement. I have nothing against trans people, and fully support their decisions to live their lives in the way that they choose, but allowing them to rule our events is getting pretty ridiculous! If I lived in Glasgow, I would totally skip this event!
Denver_Bear
@AzLights: AMEN!
justvisiting
So I’m just wondering something, aren’t most drag queens generally also gay? I know not all are, some are just into the act but are married with 5 kids blah blah…
Somebody mentioned fighting amongst yourselves. Sadly there is always going to be something somewhere that hurts somebodies feelings and there’s not much you can do about it… you would think eventually we would learn that we can’t control everyone. So but anyway just a serious question from a confused straight guy.
gay banning gay?
Isn’t that like the United Negro College Fund denying a mixed kid because they aren’t black enough?
gentle lucifer
@Johnny Jaqua: The fact you think it’s a joke is what’s offensive.
gentle lucifer
I remember having an “aha” moment in high school about the LGBT community. It involved Romeo and Juliet and seeing drag queens as Mercutio. Maybe it was just due to Baz Luhrmann putting Mercutio in drag, but I found it very appropriate. Drag shows are the laugh, aren’t they? They’re a good time. It’s easy to see them as a clown act. But really, when you get to that final scene, you realize that Mercutio had all the brains in the play. I don’t mean to belittle any group, but to say that the drag queens are just a clown show or a laugh is a mistake. Sure, they decorate and dress up and put on an act, but that is extremely symbolic of so much in so many ways. And if you talk to a drag queen, they don’t mean to belittle anybody at all! To even insinuate that they are not being themselves is extremely narrow minded.
Growing up in a midwestern town it was the Drag community I first came in contact with and THAT is what made me realize there’s pride in being who you are.
Personally I believe any group that defies the norms of society when it comes to sexuality orientation or gender and gender identity should be supported by the LGBT community.
sjacks1986
As a straight man, I’m certain I can’t relate to trans men and women, but it seems to me to be utterly ridiculous to compare a drag queen ‘ACT’ to a group of people who are biologically of a different sex. One is a hugely overacted and exaggerated act (Drag queens are not really emulating women), the other is real life people who live their lives as a different sex. I realise this could similar to a white man wearing black face. I’d love to hear the views of any trans people as I have no real point of reference on this and would be happy to hear some experienced perspective.
KRB643
I a Bi male….I have Gay friends, some of which are Drag Queens, I have Lesbian friends and I have known several Trans people as well…..and all of this makes no sense to me…the Drag Queens I know, have no desire to be women….these Queens are putting on a show…and as for emulating women, well there are several that could pass…actually they intrigue me more, because they don’t want to be women either, but some of them are beautiful….it wasn’t long ago I was discussing the fact that Bisexuals are often looked down upon by Gays and Lesbians…that they were confused or just want it all, which is a bunch of crap…I’m in a heterosexual relationship and we have been married for 5 years and we also have what we refer to as a third…a bi female who is close to both of us..we would love to be more open about this relationship…and that is what it is….and most of our friends and family know and have accepted this 3 way relationship….
So why after all the years of being shunned should we ourselves shun others because they are different….is that not hypocritical….why can’t we all just be who we are…it would be glorious if all of us could get along…there are lots of people that don’t fit well in any particular group and I have always thought that tagging people was something that the heterosexuals did…it is a shame that a persons sexuality would cause such angst in the LGBT community…it saddens me….I thought that we would get acceptance from the LGBT community, but what I’m learning here is that there is still those who look down upon others in this community….you would think that the LGBT community would be more tolerant of the differences in others….but I guess I was wrong…we are all different in some way…shouldn’t we try to get past these kind of things…isn’t that intolerance what we were trying to get away from?….finally, I’m not confused and neither are my two partners….
BloodZelda
I don’t get how their identity belittles mine. I’m a transwoman, although I identify more as a lesbian. I’m also not a fan of drag shows. That being said, I don’t go to drag shows. Problem solved. They get to have their fun, I get to have mine. Everyone’s happy. Why is this an issue? Especially in the lgbt community there are differing opinions. If you want people to accept you, you have to accept them. As long as they’re not offending you as a person directly, I don’t see the problem. Of course, now they just might because of this over reaction, and I can’t really blame them. We should be inclusive, not divisive. Even if we don’t understand them. Live and let live.