How drag as an art form sashayed from the underground and strutted into the mainstream

Jean Malin was one of the first openly gay performers in the Prohibition era during the "pansy craze" of the early 1930s. Wikimedia

Recent protests against drag queen story hours are the latest in a series of actions targeting the increased prominence of displays of LGBTIQ+ culture in the public arena.

But drag artists have been strutting their stuff in speakeasies, cabarets and films for a long time now.