Will Wanting to be Politically Correct Lead to the End of Drag Queens?

When it comes to drag performers, everyone has a different opinion.  Some of my acquaintances love drag queens, I have friends that are phenomenal drag queens / performers, while some do not desire to see anyone in drag and others that cannot stand being around them. 

Advertisement

To each their own I say.  But are drag queens offensive?  Well, some may say Hedda Lettuce, Bianca del Rio, and even Miss Richfield 1981 are a little offensive in their own way.  But we are not talking about comedic offensiveness or the politically incorrectness they throw down on stage.  The question is – are some drag queens not politically correct because they are a gay man in a dress and not transgender?

Gay Pride Event Bans Drag Because It Offends Transgendered

An LGBT pride march in Scotland has banned “cis” drag queens from marching out of the fear that it could offend transgender people.

Free Pride Glasgow is scheduled to take place in August, and bills itself as an alternative to the city’s main Pride event, which has allegedly become too commercialized. – dailycaller.com

This time the issue is much bigger than the backlash Ru Paul's Drag Race received about using the term "SHE MAIL" during its broadcasts.  It's not about terminology being banned, but types of performers not being allowed to participate in Pride Events.

“It was felt by the group within the Trans/Non Binary Caucus that some drag performance, particularly cis drag, hinges on the social view of gender and making it into a joke, however transgender individuals do not feel as though their gender identity is a joke,” organizers said in a statement.

According to the statement announcing the policy, some transsexuals found drag performances offensive because it “hinges on the social view of gender and making it into a joke.”

Initially, the policy was also going to ban transsexual drag queens, on the grounds that it would be inappropriate to ask individual queens whether they identified as transgender or not. But then that policy offended the transgender drag queens, who complained, leading to a new policy where trans drag queens are welcome but wicked cis queens are banned (“Cisgender” means a person who identifies with their actual, physical sex).

Free Pride Glasgow justified its decision in a Monday Facebook post, saying they were deliberately choosing to desires of transgender women more than others. – dailycaller.com

Advertisement

Here is the lengthy Free Pride Facebook post from Monday.  As always, click on picture for larger view.

Advertisement

The Free Pride does not speak for all of Glasgow, Scotland nor all the Pride celebrants. The decision earned a rebuke from the main Glasgow Pride event.

“Pride Glasgow believes that any community group should be given their place to flourish but that success should not be built on the negativity and ignorance towards other events, groups and like minded people and we are saddened to see that this is the direction that Free Pride has chosen to take.”

Opposition to drag queens is surprisingly common, at least on the British left. Earlier this year, the National Union of Students officially condemned drag and cross-dressing as forms of “fancy dress.”

“Transphobic fancy dress should be met with the same disdain with which we meet other prejudiced or appropriative costumes,” the group said at the time. – dailycaller.com

This is much bigger than the backlash Ru Paul's Drag Race received from using the term "SHE MAIL."  It's not about terminology being banned, but types of performers not being allowed to perform.

But unlike the Ru Paul situation where we heard individuals come forward and disagree with the term being used, we do not hear any members of the transgender community coming forward at this time agreeing or disagreeing with Free Pride's stance on drag performers.  Are they being overly cautious, too cautious way before a situation occurs, or will a situation even occur?  Are they creating a problem that may never exist?

Advertisement

Will Free Pride's statements snowball?  Will there be a growing movement to ban cis drag performers?  Will we need to just have transgender drag queens performing? 

And maybe I am a little naive, but if a transgender performer is transitioning from male to female and has at least the top surgery, is it still drag?  I'm asking for some help on this one.

And if that is no longer drag and we ban transsexual and cis drag queens, wouldn't that be the end of drag altogether?

 

Advertisement

Here is more info about Free Pride of Glasgow from its webpage.

7 thoughts on “Will Wanting to be Politically Correct Lead to the End of Drag Queens?”

  1. So the Trans community wants

    So the Trans community wants to be accepted for who they are, but drag queens can't be who they want to be? Hypocritical much.

    Reply
  2. CIS isn’t real anyway.  It

    CIS isn't real anyway.  It was made up BS by feminists with no basis in science.    The idea that we are assigned our gender at birth by the doctor is retarded. (Yes I said it).   Genetics dictate our gender.   The doctor just states what gender you are based on your anatomy.   Saying your CIS is pure nonsense.  

    Trans people have been drinking the feminist cool-aid.    Transgender isn't a third gender either.   Transgender means –  Transitioning from one gender to another.       And once that process is complete via surgeries and psychological treatments, then they are no longer trans, but the gender they felt they should have been in the first place. 

    We really need to stop giving any credence to ideas that can't be proven or backed by science from these gender studies courses.   

    Reply
  3. Just because (many) drag

    Just because (many) drag queens are cis does not mean that there is not an identification with drag.  Some are comedic yes and others more serious… but either way, it became a means of coping for some and for others part of a fetish and still for others part of culturally who they are… I do not personally identify as such… I identify as bear and would be highly offended if I could not be represented as a bear in PRIDE.  So really, we all have identities that may be cultural or sexual or both, but not necessarily in terms of another sex. 

     

    Reply
  4. Advertisement
  5. Drag queens are little more

    Drag queens are little more than clowns. However, the transgender community has no right to be offended over it. If anyone has a right to be offended, it's the entire female population. But they aren't offended, and neither should the trans community.  

    Reply
  6. We don’t like it when

    We don't like it when heterosexual people treat us like the joke of the party either. If we can complain about people ridiculing us in jokes, parodies, comedy, etc then I guess transgender people also have the same right to complain and spread awareness of their struggles.

    Drag is not an identity; it is performance. We don't depend on it at all.

     

     

     

    Reply
  7. That is ridiculous! I don’t

    That is ridiculous! I don't even like most drag queens (I make an exception for Sherry Vine) but there is a place in the LGBT community for all. 

    Reply
  8. Advertisement
  9. What this is so Stupid !

    What this is so Stupid ! Transgender's Get over yourselves  already ! Drag has been around forever ! I'm kinda getting tired of the Tran's news ! Hate if you want , One Gay man's opinion That's it 

    Reply

Leave a Reply to analog Cancel reply