“Racers, start your engines, and may the best drag queen win!”
With RuPaul’s Drag Race returning for its 16th season and Mama Ru dropping a new album today, we thought it was the perfect time to highlight one of Gay Twitter™’s hottest trends in the new year.
FULL DRAG / / OUT OF DRAG.
Hello, hello, hello!
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For these last few days, men all of stripes have shown off their beautiful selves, alongside their fierce drag personas.
This trend is giving… liberation!
Lewks aside, there is something powerful about men of all kinds brandishing their drag alter-egos.
Drag is under attack across the country, with two states, Tennessee and Montana, passing laws which would specifically ban drag artists from performing in certain public spaces.
Four other states–Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and North Dakota–passed restrictions on “adult” performances.
But no queen goes down without a fight. Anti-drag laws haven’t fared well in court, with federal courts blocking the bans in Tennessee, Montana Florida and Texas.
But those defeats haven’t deterred anti-LGBTQ+ Republicans. Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis continues to make his homophobic agenda a centerpiece of his futile campaign, and Nikki Haley tries to appeal to the gay-haters at every turn.
And we don’t even have to touch Trump…(though he is such a campy queen).
For many LGBTQ+ folx, drag queens are essential figures in their personal journeys.
Ex-pro hockey player Brock McGillis, for example, told Queerty that drag queens were some of the first people to make him feel comfortable with his gay identity.
“Drag queens were some of the first people when I was a little, closeted hockey people to welcome me into the community and make me feel safe, and treat me like one of their own,” he said. “I love the art form. I love the people. I love how outgoing and extra most of them are.”
One of the queens who participated in the trend, diving superstar Aidan Faminoff, told Queerty drag is the only activity that equates to the joy he felt in the pool
“But the one reason I think it stuck with me is, because the passion that I have for diving, that ‘oh s***’ feeling I would get when I would step onto that board and walk down and dive, right when I stepped on the stage for the first time, I got that exact feeling. I had been missing that feeling, and waiting to find it at my next thing in life,” he said.
When in drag, people can be whomever they want. There’s nothing more beautiful than that.
And OK, these good looking queens don’t hurt…
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