Doesn’t it feel, perhaps, as if drag queens are about to save the world? For a long time the most public threat to drag queens were other drag queens, competing in lip-sync battles, or in the art of ritual insult, or throwing shade about back hair. In the past couple of years, though, drag has become a culture war flash point, with a series of US states passing anti-drag legislation. In Britain, in the summer of 2022, protesters started turning up at libraries hosting Drag Queen Story Hour. These protest groups, often including anti-vaxxers, white nationalists and conspiracy theorists, claimed to advocate for the protection of children. Conservative politicians described the events – typically drag queens reading stories about the joy of being yourself – as “inappropriate” and “propaganda”. Videos appeared on social media, edited to suggest children were present at explicit nude performances, rather than, as was the case, an afternoon of fairytales in fancy dress.
Between the summers of 2022 and 2023 at least 57 all-ages drag events were disrupted in the UK. Something was building. A man was found guilty of a public order offence after protesting at a drag queen story-telling event at Tate Britain. He was accused of being “aggressive and intimidating” and making comments motivated by “hostility relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity”. Another memorable demonstration took place last March outside a pub in south London, which the rightwing group Turning Point UK publicised with the message “groom dogs, not kids”. However, the event listing on the pub’s website was out of date, so there were no drag queens and no readings and no children. There was just the idea of a drag queen – and that was enough. It would all be quite funny, if it wasn’t also terrifying.
