Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a local politician with national aspirations. Like many MAGA Republicans, he learned from former President Donald Trump that jamming as many culture war hot buttons as possible is a surefire bet to draw the attention of tabloid-hungry press, plus the giant social media outrage machine. Word gets out, along with your name.
Drag queens are now a hot button. DeSantis has launched state investigations against drag entertainment, and he’s even considered investigating parents via child protective services for taking their children to the shows. The smears are a subset of long-established LGBTQ hate, which seems to know no bounds, and have become a flourishing right-wing thing. A minimum of nine GOP-led state legislatures are currently angling to restrict or even criminalize drag shows, NPR recently reported.
Not all has been lost. Notable is “We’re Here,” an extraordinarily empathetic, Emmy-winning (for costumes and makeup) HBO Max program that sends three fabulous queens into some of America’s reddest neighborhoods. There, they perform a dazzling and defiant riff on the Gay Pride slogan, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.”
