During heated arguments at the Supreme Court yesterday in the case of 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis – about a web designer who doesn’t want to make websites for same-sex couples – Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared angry and even suggested that a Colorado baker had been forced into a “reeducation training program” after he discriminated against a gay couple.
The case is about a web designer named Lori Smith, who says that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law might make her make websites for same-sex couples even though she wants to make them only for opposite-sex couples. Her complaint, which cites the Bible as well as caselaw, says that she “believes that God is calling her to promote and celebrate His design for marriage… between one man and one woman only.”
She is suing over the same law that Colorado baker Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop violated several years ago when he refused to sell a cake to a same-sex couple because he believed they would serve it at a wedding, something he said was against his sincerely held religious beliefs.
In that case, Phillips was ordered to “additional remedial measures, including ‘comprehensive staff training on the Public Accommodations section,’” or training about the state’s anti-discrimination law.
Gorsuch called it a “reeducation program,” language likely used to reference internment camps set up by 20th-century dictatorships to silence dissent. States require training on the law in numerous cases, including education about road laws to get a driver’s license or parenting classes in child custody cases, and usually it’s not referred to as a “reeducation program.”
“Mr. Phillips did go through a reeducation training program, pursuant to Colorado law, did he not, Mr. [Colorado Solicitor General Eric] Olson?” Gorsuch asked.
“He went through a process that ensured he was familiar with…” Olson started to answer.
“It was a reeducation program, right?” Gorsuch pressed.
“It was not a ‘reeducation program,’” Olson said.
“What do you call it?” Gorsuch asked.
“It was a process to make sure he was familiar with Colorado law,” Olson said calmly.
“Some might be excused for calling that a ‘reeducation program,’” Gorsuch snapped back.
“Astounding that Gorsuch, a Supreme Court Justice, refers to Colorado giving courses on following civil rights law as ‘reeducation training,’” Adam Cohen of Lawyers for Good Government tweeted. “Like being taught not to discriminate against LGBTQ is the same as being sent to a gulag for protesting communism in the Soviet Union.”
Russian libraries are removing LGBTQ+-themed books from their shelves after the country’s President Vladimir Putin signed a law yesterday expanding the prohibition on LGBTQ+ “propaganda.”
The newly signed law effectively outlaws any public expression of LGBTQ+ life in Russia by banning “any action or the spreading of any information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality in public, online, or in films, books or advertising,” Reuters reported.
Four Moscow libraries have already taken action in the wake of the new law, according to Russian media. The libraries reportedly received a list of authors whose books they needed to make completely unavailable on shelves and online. The books include any with LGBTQ+ content, and based on another new law, any authors considered “foreign agents” or who criticize the war in Ukraine.
Putin first signed a law banning so-called “gay propaganda” in Russia in June 2013. The law ostensibly sought to “protect children” from any “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships,” as stated in the law’s text. The new law extends the restrictions to not just children but Russians of all ages.
The law has mostly been used to silence LGBTQ+ activist organizations, events, websites, and media, as well as to break up families and harass teachers. It has also been roundly condemned by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as civil rights activists around the world.
These critics say the updated law will further endanger the lives of Russia’s LGBTQ+ population, which has already suffered increased harassment, violence, and hostility in recent years.
The new law comes as conservatives in the United States are advancing a similar push for schools to remove LGBTQ+ content from their libraries.
Across the country, parents and politicians are petitioning school boards and proposing laws to severely limit the type of content kids can access at school. In some states, laws have been proposed that would criminalize librarians and other school staff if they don’t remove certain books from the shelves.
Conservatives have claimed these books are inappropriate or even pornographic and that parents deserve more control over what their children can access, even though many people in these towns have argued that books with similar heterosexual scenes don’t face the same scrutiny. In many cases, their fights have been successful.
Jere Chang’s talented and gifted students in Atlanta, Georgia are growing up in a world very different from the one she grew up in.
When she was a student during the 1980s, she and her queer peers largely stayed closeted, trying to fit in to avoid being bullied or outed. There wasn’t much LGBTQ+ representation in the media. Instead, she constantly heard about how people like her were “abominations” who “live in sin.”
She worried that her own family might disown her if she ever came out, and she never imagined she’d be able to live authentically as a lesbian.
“We lived in fear yet strived to live our most authentic self,” she says, noting that many queers took refuge in Pride events or clubs and bars to express themselves freely.
But as she aged, the world changed around her: She saw more LGBTQ+ characters appearing in books, film, and TV, more transgender people embracing their identities, and more folks using language recognizing gender-neutral individuals.
She eventually came out to her mother — who said she’d love her no matter what — and gradually came out at work. She later married the woman she loves, something made possible nationwide by the 2015 Supreme Court decision. Now, they’re raising two great kids together.
So much has changed for the better for her and other queer people, and the upcoming generation gives her even more hope.
“I have faith that the young folks are creating a much more loving and accepting world,” she says.
“In turn,” she adds, “I believe that young folks can learn from the older generation because we can relate to their experiences of coming out and/or not feeling accepted.”
Chang knows that the brave generations of LGBTQ+ activists who rose up at Stonewall and elsewhere helped pave the way for herself and other queers to live openly and happily. But “there’s still much work to be done,” she notes, at home and abroad.
She observes that it’s dangerous to live as an out queer person in certain countries. In the U.S., her queer elders face financial, social, and health challenges as they enter their senior years. She encourages others to honor them by donating, volunteering, advocating, and educating on their behalf.
This humane kindness isn’t just evident in her classroom. It also shines through the short, funny videos she shares with over a million followers on social media.
She smiles warmly while poking gentle fun at common teachers’ experiences and her students’ clever observations. Her relaxed friendliness and glow make her seem like a supportive teacher, one who is both a testament to the generations who came before her and a possible inspiration to the generations who will follow.
“I hope to make a difference for the folks who changed the course of history,” she says.
“I hope the younger generation continues the fight to create an all-inclusive society,” she adds, “regardless of gender, love, and identity.”
In that world, no student would feel afraid of coming out. They might not need to come out in the first place — that’s a world Chang longs for, and she’s planting the seeds for its future growth.
The South Korean army has refused to recognise the death of a trans soldier as “on-duty” after protests.
A committee made the decision during a Thursday (1 December) meeting, where they classified trans soldier Byun Hee-soo’s case as a “general death”.
Byun, who is believed to be the first openly transgender soldier in South Korea, was found dead at her home in March 2021 after being discharged from the military a year prior.
After her death, family members and LGBTQ+ activists called for the military to categorise her death as “on-duty”.
But the nine-member panel opted to reject the category after finding that Byun’s death had no “significant causal connection” with her military service.
Activists have argued that the Gyeonggi province tank gunner had been significantly affected by her discharge in January 2020 after undergoing gender affirmation surgery and that it ultimately led to her death.
The “general death” category allows her family to receive financial support, which includes a funeral allowance and compensation.
Activist and prosecutor Seo Ji-hyun said that the country “could have saved” Byun before she died.
“We could have saved her… We just had to let her live life true to who she was,” she said.
South Korea’s Trans Liberation Front CEO Kim Wo-myeon said that, during her funeral, she felt that “something was wrong with the world”.
Additionally, members of a presidential committee on military deaths urged the South Korean defence minister to classify Byun’s case as “on-duty” death in April, according to Yonhap News.
Byun Hee Soo’s legal battle against her discharge
Byun Hee-soo attempted to challenge the discharge during a legal case, but passed away before a ruling could be made.
The Korea Herald revealed that, prior to her death, she had been urging for a continuation of the legal battle so that she could return to military service.
Her family vowed to press ahead with the lawsuits, saying they would apply for a succession of the original case to “fulfil her dream [of serving the country as a transgender soldier] by winning the legal battle at all costs”.
The court eventually ruled in her favour on October 2021, saying that the army’s decision was “undoubtedly illegal and should be cancelled”.
The ruling added that it was “obvious that the decision should have been based on the premise that [Byun] was a woman”, as well as “various factors, such as special circumstances of the military, basic rights of trans people, and public opinions”.
Texas Family Project — an anti-LGBTQ organization that wants to stop “the Left” from “indoctrinating kids,” “confusing children about changing their gender,” and “undermining parents’ ability to protect their children’s innocence” — has launched Defend Our Kids Texas, a website where people can report live drag queen performances.
“Our mission is to expose attacks on our children’s innocence by uncovering and highlighting the left’s public displays of sexual degeneracy,” the website reads.
The site’s lead face is Sara Gonzalez, a host for the conservative broadcast Blaze TV. Gonzales has called drag performers “pedophiles,” directed her social media followers to shut down drag performances in the state, and lied about performances just to whip up public outrage against them.
“Gonzales is teaming up with Texas Family Project… to expose the depravity of the left and fight for sound public policy to Defend Texas Kids,” the site proclaims.
The site uses right-wing rhetoric characterizing drag shows as an effort to “sexualize children” or “groom” them for rape. Even the site’s name is provocative, as the only reason Texas parents would need to “defend” their kids would be if someone were threatening their safety.
Such claims of drag queens “threatening” kids have led armed protestors and violent threats to be deployed against venues hosting all-ages drag shows as well as against bookstores, libraries, and other venues hosting drag queen story hours. The rhetoric is especially concerning since a mass shooter recently killed five and injured 18 while attacking a Colorado Springs drag bar.
While appearing last month on the show of bigoted Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Gonzales called drag events a form of “child abuse.” She also shared a video of a drag performance in Texas where a queen lip-synched to a song with explicit sexual lyrics. Gonzales claimed the event was all-ages, but she lied.
According to Raw Story, the venue advertised the event online with a disclaimer stating, “If you would not allow your children to see a rated R movie or watch TV-MA programming, this is not the event for them.”
During her appearance on his show, Carlson said that drag shows are “sexualizing children” and are “a huge moral crime that nobody should accept.”
Gonzales also recently lead a protest against a transgender story time at Patchouli Joe’s, a bookstore in the university town of Denton, Texas. The bookstore hosted a transgender individual who read three children’s books about gender to commemorate the last day of National Transgender Awareness Week.
The Texas Family Project encouraged its followers to “protest against this disgusting attempt to normalize and celebrate… something that leaves kids physically disfigured, sterilized, and traumatized for the rest of their lives.” It also called the event “abusive.”
During the event, Gonzales stalked the bookstore’s aisles, recording video of the storytime. When a security officer kicked her out, she continued recording and screamed to the audience, “This is child abuse! Child abuse! You should all have your children taken from you.”
Supporters of the event invited armed guards from a local roller derby team and the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club to protect its audience members. Gonzales identified these people as “antifa,” a word meaning anti-fascists. Police also attended to keep protestors from disturbing the book reading.
Two days after the event, Stein attended a Denton city council meeting and screamed about the bookstore “indoctrinating children to become transgender.”
Joseph Harding, 35, was indicted on six counts of wire fraud, money laundering, making false statements and other crimes, the U.S. attorney’s office for Northern Florida said in a release.
Harding, a Republican whose district is south of Gainesville, is accused of seeking Covid-relief loans from the Small Business Administration in 2020 for two companies, Vak Shack Inc. and Harding Farms, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleges that in applications to the agency, Harding said the companies had half a dozen employees and gross revenues from the previous year totaling more than $800,000.
The companies had no employees, and state records showed they had been dormant in the months before the applications were filed, the indictment says.
Harding sought more than $150,000 in loans and received roughly $45,000 in January and February 2021, according to the indictment.
Harding pleaded not guilty to the charges in court Wednesday, court records show. Neither he nor his lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment.
Harding, a home health care executive first elected in 2020, is known for having introduced a bill that prohibited classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state’s primary schools.
Critics blasted the bill, describing it as an attack on the state’s LGBTQ community and saying it could open districts up to lawsuits from parents upset about any LGBTQ-related conversation.
“This bill goes way beyond the text on its page,” former Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat who is gay,said in February. “It sends a terrible message to our youth that there is something so wrong, so inappropriate, so dangerous about this topic that we have to censor it from classroom instruction.”
Harding’s trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 11. He could face 20 years in prison for the fraud charges, 10 years for money laundering and five years for making false statement, the release says.
The House passed legislation Thursday that enshrines federal protections for marriages of same-sex and interracial couples.
The vote of 258-169 sends the Respect for Marriage Act to President Joe Biden, who praised Congress for passing the bill and is expected to sign it into law. It comes after the Senate passed the same bill last week by a vote of 61-36.
Democrats were unified in favor of the bill, while most Republicans in both chambers voted against it. Thirty-nine House Republicans supported the legislation Thursday and one voted present.
“Your love is your choice,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said on the floor Thursday, saying there is “no reason” to believe that Republican appointees on the Supreme Court won’t want to revisit precedents on LGBTQ rights after overturning Roe v. Wade. “The pursuit of happiness means you can love whom you choose.”
“I am shocked that conservatives that have a libertarian bent believe that somehow we ought to get involved in this,” he said. “It’s not the government’s business.”
Rebekah Monson, left, and Andrea Vigil, participate in a wedding ceremony at the marriage license bureau in Miami, on Jan. 6, 2015.Wilfredo Lee / AP file
The legislation — led by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., the first openly gay person elected to the Senate — would assure that the federal government recognizes marriages that were validly performed and guarantee full benefits “regardless of the couple’s sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.” It would not, however, require states to issue marriage licenses contrary to state law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was present to gavel down the vote and announce the bill’s passage. Loud applause broke out on the Democratic side of the chamber, while a few Republicans joined in clapping.
The bill was amended in response to Senate GOP demands. It clarified that religious organizations won’t be required to perform same-sex marriages and that government will not be forced to protect polygamous marriages.
Former Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the first openly gay member of Congress, attended the vote in the Capitol.
“It’s a sign of enormous political change in America,” he told NBC News. “And it’s meaningful for people. It’s real. It’s not a symbolic gesture. I know a lot of married gay and lesbian people who have been worried ever since Clarence Thomas said what he said. So this is reassurance to them as well.”
Passage of the legislation comes amid fears that the conservative Supreme Court majority might revisit the right to same-sex marriage after it rescinded the right to an abortion. It reflects the rapidly growing U.S. public support for legal same-sex marriage, which hit a new high of 71% in June, according to Gallup tracking polls — up from 27% in 1996.
“After the uncertainty caused by the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Congress has restored a measure of security to millions of marriages and families,” Biden said in a statement. “They have also provided hope and dignity to millions of young people across this country who can grow up knowing that their government will recognize and respect the families they build.”
The president also thanked members of both parties who championed the bill, saying, “We showed that it’s possible for Democrats and Republicans to come together to safeguard our most fundamental rights.”
In the Senate, 12 Republicans voted with unanimous Democrats to pass the bill, which sent it back to the House. The GOP proponents made up an eclectic group, including retiring Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio, Roy Blunt of Missouri and Richard Burr of North Carolina; centrist deal-makers like Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina; a leadership member in Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa; and conservative Sens. Todd Young of Indiana, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.
Frank, who attended a bill signing ceremony with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Thursday reflected in an interview on the bill’s passage, 26 years after the Defense of Marriage Act banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
“I was here for the birth of DOMA. And this is one case when the funeral is a much happier occasion,” he said.
A trans woman in Qatar has described how she was forced to cut her hair and had her breast tissue “removed” after being arrested for who she is.
LGBTQ+ rights, or lack thereof, in Qatar have been in the spotlight since the country was announced as host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
While there has been global outrage over Qatar’s criminalisation of gay sex, punishable with jail time or the death penalty, little has been said about the fate of trans Qataris.
In Qatar, trans people can be arrested without charge for “violating public decency”, simply for being trans.
Speaking to the BBC under a pseudonym and through an encrypted messaging service, one trans woman named as “Shahd” said she wanted to speak out about the persecution of trans people in Qatar, telling the publication: “I am very afraid, but I just want people to know that we do exist.”
Shahd said she had been arrested for “impersonating a woman”, and was forced to cut her hair.
Because she had been taking oestrogen, procured from abroad, authorities demanded that she “remove her breast tissue”, leaving her with wounds across her chest.
Shahd said she has been “arrested and interrogated several times because of my identity”, and is constantly in fear of being detained again.
She added: “I lost my job and my friends… I lost everything.”
A recent report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), showed how Qatar has arrested, abused and harassed LGBTQ+ people as recently as September 2022. HRW documented beatings and sexual assault by police, and heard from trans women who said they were ordered to attend conversion therapy by officials.
Shahd confirmed this to be true, that LGBTQ+ people who are arrested are referred to doctors for “therapy” sessions.
But a government official said that Qatar “categorically rejected” these claims, and told the BBC that at the World Cup, people “from all walks of life come together in Qatar to build bridges of friendship and break down barriers of misunderstanding”.
Despite the country’s horrific human rights record, last month FIFA officials urged players to “focus on the football” rather than “handing out moral lessons” during the World Cup.
A letter from FIFA president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura, sent to all nations competing in the World Cup, reportedly said: “Please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists.
“At FIFA, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world… No one people or culture or nation is ‘better’ than any other.
“Please let’s all remember that and let football take centre stage.”
Islamic extremist Taliban officials in Afghanistan publicly whipped 12 people in a public soccer stadium, including individuals accused of gay sex.
The whipping occurred as thousands watched in the eastern Logar province, BBC reported. The punished individuals were allegedly guilty of “moral crimes” including adultery, robbery, and gay sex, a Taliban official told the publication.
Each person received between 21 and 39 lashes; 39 is the maximum number that Taliban authorities reportedly inflict upon convicts. Some of the individuals were jailed afterward. The incident was similar to a public flogging of 19 people that took place in the northern Afghan province of Takhar.
The public flogging in Logar occurred a week after Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada promised to fully enforce Sharia law, an extremist interpretation of Islamic principles, across the country. This includes amputating the limbs of thieves, as well as public executions, floggings, and stonings, The Guardian reported. These punishments are used for such crimes as drinking alcohol, theft, kidnapping, highway robbery, abandoning religious beliefs, and rebellion.
Sharia law forbids same-sex sexual activity and can punish it with the death penalty, including execution by stoning or being crushed by a wall. Taliban members can immediately shoot people dead if they find any evidence of queerness on a person’s phone, computer, or elsewhere. They can also hunt down, detain, and torture any queer friends a person is connected to.
The HRW report found that LGBTQ Afghans are facing increased threats, violent attacks, and sexual assaults from Taliban members and close friends, family members, and partners who either support the Taliban or fear retaliation if they don’t betray their LGBTQ associates.
In June, during the worldwide outbreak of mpox (the skin infection previously known as monkeypox), Taliban officials patrolled known gay urban areas to harass, inspect, and detain gay men under the guise of preventing an outbreak.
In October, the Taliban murdered Hamed Sabouri, a gay 22-year-old medical student, and sent a video of his death to his family. Sabouri was tortured for three days before being shot in the back of the head. His partner had previously been raped, beaten, and tortured with electric shocks. Sabouri’s family fled the country after his murder.
The deadly attack at an LGBTQ club in Colorado last month — where a shooter turned the venue’s “Drag Divas” night into a massacre — has made an already harrowing year for drag performers worse. Eight of the country’s top drag queens told NBC News that the current environment has subdued their larger-than-life personas, prompting four of them to increase security at their events in recent weeks.
The Nov. 19 shooting at Colorado Springs’ sole LGBTQ nightclub, Club Q, left five people dead and 17 others shot and injured. The 22-year-old suspect is being held without bond on suspicion of murder and hate crimes, though a motive has not been shared by authorities.
This attack comes on the heels of widespread anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, over 100 protests and threats directed at drag events and several pieces of novel legislation seeking to restrict drag shows.
Drag queen Jinkx Monsoon.Curtis Brown
“We’re trying to smile and make people happy for the holidays, and in the back of our heads we’re thinking, ‘I hope I don’t get shot,’” said Jinkx Monsoon, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season five and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season seven.
Monsoon, who is set to make her Broadway debut in “Chicago” next year, said that over the past several months, she had been using metal detectors and creating venue escape routes for her U.S. events. Since the Club Q shooting, however, she has hired armed guards and has started to ban re-entry following the start of her performances.
Drag superstar Alaska Thunderf— 5000, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” season two and co-host of the popular drag podcast “Race Chaser,” said that in the days following the Club Q shooting, she sat down with her staff to plot out escape routes for each venue remaining on her current nationwide tour.
Drag queen Alaska.Ken Phillips Group
At a couple of her gigs this week, police squad cars havebeen stationed down the block from the venues, she added.
“It’s mortifying that we even have to think about these things for something as joyous and celebratory as a drag show,” Alaska said. “Why do we have to be worried about where the exits are and where a safe route to get to safety is? It’s terrifying, but that’s the reality of it.”
Bigoted rhetoric and violence
The Club Q shooting, while the most high-profile and deadly attack affecting the LGBTQ community this year, followed a string of attacks on the queer community — particularly transgender people and drag performers (many of whom identify as gay men or trans women offstage).
For months, many right-wing lawmakers, media personalities and activists have accused LGBTQ people — and drag performers in particular — of “grooming,” “indoctrinating” and “sexualizing” children.
The word “grooming” has long been associated with mischaracterizing LGBTQ people, particularly gay men and transgender women, as child sex abusers, and advocates have warned recently that its resurgence could lead to real-world violence.
The day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the Parental Rights in Education law — or what critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — the word “grooming” was mentioned on Twitter nearly 8,000 times, compared with just 40 times on the first day of this year, according to Alejandra Caraballo, a clinical instructor at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic.
Even in the days following the Colorado Springs shooting, some right-wing figures doubled down on the rhetoric.
Last week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson was joined by the leader of Gays Against Groomers, a self-described “coalition of gays against the sexualization, indoctrination and medicalization of children,”who said shootings would continue to happen “until we end this evil agenda that is attacking children.” Neither a representative for Fox News nor Gays Against Groomers immediately responded to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Monsoon told NBC News that online trolls have flooded two of her old music videos over the past two weeks with disparaging comments accusing drag queens of sexualizing children. The music videos featured hired teen and child actors, dancing innocently and attending a backyard birthday party.
“Because they can’t call us ‘faggots,’ because we have enough support behind us, they call us ‘groomers’ and ‘pedophiles’ instead,” Monsoon said.
Aside from the surge in trope-laced rhetoric, LGBTQ Americans have also been subjected to threats or acts of violence.
A report released by LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD days after the Club Q shooting found that drag events faced at least 124 protests and significant threats in 47 states so far this year. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, for example, a doughnut shop was vandalized and firebombed by a Molotov cocktail in two separate incidents after it hosted a drag event in October, according to KFOR and KJRH, NBC affiliates in Oklahoma.
Yvie Oddly, winner of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 11, said her management company sent her and other drag performers an email Tuesday, saying they had requested extra security staff at their shows and will have the security teams check patrons for guns.
“It is unfortunate that the world has come to this, but your safety and that of the communities you visit is the priority,” the email, which Oddly shared with NBC News, says.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security in a terrorism advisory bulletin raised concerns about potential threats to the LGBTQ, Jewish and migrant communities from violent extremists inside the U.S. The bulletin said some extremists have been inspired by recent attacks, including the Colorado Springs shooting.
An old art form meets new opponents
Drag has been an art form since at least the 16th century, and in its modern form, with individual performers building up their own fan bases, since the early 1900s. However, the art form has only recently been thrust into the center of the latest American culture war.
Latrice Royale, who has appeared on both “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” reasoned that the backlash is due to the greater visibility of drag brought on by the global success of the RuPaul-led competition shows, which have spinoffs in at least 16 other countries. Since it launched in 2009, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has become a global phenomenon, giving mainstream legitimacy to a nightclub art form and transforming small-town performers into worldwide celebrities.
Latrice Royale.Handout Photo
“Back in the day, before drag was so mainstream and on every television channel and all of the media and daytime, we were underground,” Royale, 50, who has been doing drag for over 30 years, said. “Everything happened at night, at nightclubs, in the wee hours of the morning. It was not accessible to the mainstream of the world.”
Drag’s move from queer nightclubs to prime-time television brought it — and its over-the-top characters and costumes — legions of new fans, including children.
“I don’t like parents bringing their kids to meet me, because I don’t want to be seen next to a kid, because I don’t want to be labeled a pedophile,” Monsoon said. “You start to mistrust yourself for no other reason than this language is just being put on you constantly. It is dehumanizing. It makes you feel insane to just be yourself.”
So far this year, at least eight bills have been proposed seeking to restrict drag, according to GLAAD. Last month, for example, a bill was introduced in Tennessee that would ban drag queens from performing on public or private property in the presence of a minor. If signed into law, repeat offenders would be charged with a felony and could face up to six years in prison.
At least two members of Congress, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, have spoken out against children being at drag performances, with Greene saying, in part, “It should be illegal to take children into Drag Queen shows.” Neither Greene nor Boebert immediately responded to NBC News’ requests for comment.
Shea Coulee.Handout photo
The eight drag queens who spoke with NBC News all agreed that not every drag performance is appropriate for minors — just like not every television show or movie is meant for children. These performers said when their shows incorporate adult material, they include parental advisory warnings on their tickets and show advertisements. However, they added that because not all drag is appropriate for children does not mean it should be banned entirely or face draconian restrictions.
“People need to look at us like they look at any other profession or art forms,” Oddly said. “There are some things that are not going to be made for the youth, but that does not mean that all of us are out here, like people seem to think we are, trying to ‘convert’ or ‘groom’ or whatever.”
Despite the challenges for the drag industry in recent months, Shea Couleé, who won the fifth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” cautioned young performers not to live in fear.
“You can’t shake a b—- that’s not afraid of you,” Couleé said. “I can get maybe a disapproving glance, but the moment I look them deadass in the eye and make eye contact, who do you think is the one looking down at the ground first? Them.”
BenDeLaCreme, who appeared on the sixth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and the third season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” shared a similar sentiment.
