In a 2020 episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the contestants participated in a parody of a presidential candidate debate. Jaida Essence Hall handily won the challenge with her refrain, “Look over there!” as she pointed at nothing. This joke became both her catchphrase and a jab at distraction politics.
Recent efforts to criminalize drag might seem like distraction politics, but these laws are not mere misdirection. Political attacks on drag are part of the broader war on LGBTQ+ lives.
After whipping up moral panic about drag queen story hours at public libraries, conservative politicians have introduced dozens of specifically anti-drag bills during the first few months of 2023. Tennessee took the lead as the first state to sign one into law. As such legislation gains traction, it also emboldens transphobic and homophobic violence, along with overzealous policing.
