Sporting dangerously high heels and glamorous outfits, drag performers will strut at the front of the Pride Parade on July 15 as this year’s community grand marshal. Hundreds of contingents will follow their lead.
“I can’t wait to see our drag community leading the parade because that means that the entire LGBT community and all of our allies in that parade will literally have their back,” Fernando Lopez, Pride Executive Director, said.
“Drag really is freedom.” – Amber St. James
The move to honor the drag community comes as over a dozen states consider bills to limit or ban the art form, the most draconian of which has already passed in Tennessee. Locally, events in which drag performers interact with children such as at TransFamily Support Services’ Boo Bash or Drag Queen Story Hour have been targeted by protesters claiming that LGBT+ people are “grooming” children. Those accusations harmfully conflate pedophilia with the education and advocacy role of drag performers as well as cross-generational work to help LGBTQ+ children in unsafe situations.
“It makes it very hard for us to exist, even in our local communities,” said drag mother Amber St. James, a title bestowed on them after they formed a drag family by mentoring, loving and supporting multiple young performers.
Drag funds the fight
For decades, drag performers have been on the frontlines of protecting the LGBTQ+ community, whether it be Stormé DeLarverie and Marsha P. Johnson at the Stonewall Inn or later fundraising efforts throughout the AIDS crisis.
“[Drag performers] were always, always at the front of that fight, to raise money for our community and they still are,” Nicole Verdes of Lambda Archives said.
In 2023, San Diego drag stars used their performances to raise money for Lambda Archives, the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and a myriad of other causes.
“Every organization or individual or issue turns to our drag community for support in times of celebration and protest. Drag communities really build families, build networks, and are oftentimes the educators and advocates of our community,” Lopez said. “I don’t think that they very frequently get enough credit for the direct action, advocacy, education and fundraising that the drag community really does for the broader LGBTQ community.”
Even with the Pride celebrations set to center the drag community, drag performers held a march and rally turning the spotlight on attacks on trans rights. On Sunday, June 18, drag stars and supporters including “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” Season 1 winner Chad Michael participated in the Drag March for Trans Rights.
At the rally following the march, Joseph Rocha, a plaintiff in the lawsuit that repealed the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, emphasized how important drag families are in the LGBTQ+ community.
“Legendary mothers like queen mother and Nicole Murray Ramirez and Chad Michaels were more mother to me than anyone who brought me into this world,” he said.
Trans, drag communities distinct
The attacks on trans rights are connected to and overlap but are still different from drag bans – just as the communities are.
“So many people are making it seem as if like, ‘Oh, these drag performers are trying to turn everybody trans or these trans folks are just drag queens’ and it’s like no, no, no, baby. These are two different things, right?” said St. James, who is also the education and advocacy coordinator for SD Pride.
Drag as an art form subverts and parodies gender roles yet it is performance, not identity. For many trans people, including St. James, drag is the first place they can explore new gender expressions in a safe environment.
“Having that space to be able to do that exploration was so, so, so integral to really me becoming the confident person that I am in my trans identity,” St. James said.
Drag queen Ajax, the emcee of the rally for trans rights, noted that at the end of the show she takes off her wig and dress – and with it the danger of being perceived as gender nonconforming. For drag performers who are trans, that danger is present whether they are on the stage or not.
“I do drag to survive” – Strawberry Corncakes
Still, when laws are meant to enforce gender norms, the intertwined communities are both at risk. Historic anti-cross-dressing or ‘masquerade’ laws were weaponized against drag performers and trans individuals alike. During police raids of gay clubs and institutions, people not wearing at least three items of clothing from their assigned sex were arrested for sexual deviancy.
Drag employs people
Strawberry Corncakes told rallygoers that when she came out as a trans woman, she thought about ending her drag persona. However, she quickly encountered employment discrimination where someone hiring would see her in person just to immediately turn her down.
“I do drag to survive as a trans woman. I know I’m not the only one,” Strawberry Corncakes told the crowd.
In November 2021, McKinsey & Co. found that transgender adults are twice as likely as cisgender adults to be unemployed, plus there exists a 32% wage gap for those who are employed.
“[Trans people] might also feel like drag performance is one of their only avenues for success and employment,” Lopez said about the way the two communities overlap.
Tootie Thomas, the owner of drag dining venue Lips, also gave a speech at the event. As a transgender business owner and leader of the business district along El Cajon Blvd., she has worked hard to gainfully employ trans people while still performing in drag seven days a week.
“We must continue to push back against those who are actually acting to restrict our rights, diminish our light, limit our expression and restrict us from making a living,” she said at the rally.
As a homeless teen, Lopez saw their first in-person drag show ever at Lips. They said, “It felt like magic to me. It felt like home.”
Lopez recalled that Thomas always gave a speech to customers at the end of the show in the ‘90s urging them to support marriage equality. That tradition remains to this day with new social justice issues.
“Drag has always been a site of liberation and exploration and freedom… Not only through the creativity of it all, but really through the activism and being able to really make my voice known as… a Black person… as a non-binary, transfemme person,” St. James said.
Drag brings acceptance
The art and advocacy of drag, including of employing marginalized people, are inseparable.
“Activism is just about making these socio-political shifts and drag does that on micro and macro scales,” said Dr. Marie Draz, the director of LGBT+ studies at SDSU. “It denaturalizes our ideas of what bodies are, what they can do, what they can look like, how they can move and suddenly it’s like ‘Oh, maybe this is more open to interpretation and play than I knew.’”
“It felt like magic to me. It felt like home.” – Fernando Lopez
Individuals may become more open to trans and gender nonconforming people after an eye-opening drag show. For many non-queer people, drag shows might be the first place they witness out and proud people not stifling themselves.
“Thinking of drag as an LGBTQ art form, and why is it that it is so threatening? Well it’s a place to play, it’s a place to subvert,” Dr. Draz said at a Women of Pride panel. “It’s a space where straight people come close to the joy of queerness.”
“It’s so much fun. I love bringing straight people to Lips,” echoed Dr. Jennifer Campbell, City Council member, during the panel discussion at the Women’s Museum of California.
Activate the allies
At the Drag March for Trans Lives, Strawberry Corncakes noted how many straight women especially love coming to drag shows and asked them to step up to protect the entertainers.
Panelists at the Women of Pride event also called for activating the allies – in particular those who think people have the right to do what they want or that the focus on genitalia is strange. Rather than being a laissez faire stance in which LGBTQ+ people are left to protect themselves, these can be organizing principles.
“We must continue to push back” – Tootie Thomas
In some places, allies are already stepping up. At the Boo Bash, LGBTQ+ adults and allies created a ‘Wall of Love’ so trans kids could attend the Halloween event, which included a Disney Villain drag show, unimpeded by anti-trans protesters across the street. For Kathie Moehlig, the founder of TransFamily Support Services, witnessing people coming together to protect drag events and trans kids has been beautiful.
“Because of the hateful rhetoric, there are more people leaning into ‘How can I support the queer community?’ that maybe were always accepting but not willing to be active allies, not understanding that allyship means being active,” Moehlig said.
At the Pride Parade, LGBTQ+ people and allies will have the back of drag performers once again. The festival includes a drag show on each stage as well as a huge show on Sunday, July 16 at 6 p.m. with surprise guests. For those in attendance, it will be a chance to uplift and celebrate the community that has so often done the same for the entire LGBTQ+ community.
“Drag has always been this space where I can find so much joy and so much community,” St. James said. “Drag really is freedom.”
