![]() ![]() But the term drag queen had entered the lexicon. But back then it simply meant dressing as the opposite sex. In 1971, in the magazine Drag Queens, prominent drag queen Lee Brewster described a drag queen as a "homosexual transvestite" who is hyperfeminine, flamboyant, and militant.Ĭertainly the word transvestite has come to mean something entirely different and more sexual. If you want to learn more about this era go to the Queer Music Heritage website which is an amazing history of the period. And those who dressed as women therefore became drag queens. The word queen was probably added in the 1960s or ‘70s in the US, where some of the more flamboyant gay men became known as queens. Many of the performers at the time preferred female impersonator as a term, as that implied that they were a professional. While British drag followed very much along the 'music hall' route through to the 1970s, in the US it went in a much more glamorous direction. This was highlighted recently in a video by the great Trixie Mattel, who said it had been used by The Reynolds newspaper in the UK as a response to a party invitation "We shall come in drag!" But with the addition of Gottmik and inclusion of trans queens and some of the other varieties of drag the show has begun, if a little late, to be more inclusive. It’s certainly true that in the first 12 or so seasons RPDR supported a very narrow definition of drag. They claim it’s been normalised to the point where it’s lost its edge and the limited identikit-queen style has created a very narrow expectation of drag performers. There are those, however, within the LGBTQ+ community that have complained that the ubiquity of RPDR has made drag far too mainstream, even anodyne, when drag was all about rebelling and challenging norms. Back then we were struggling to earn £50 a night and our goal was just to get regular work. ![]() Back in the 1990s and 2000’s when I was a working drag queen in London clubs, that would have been unthinkable. Now having completed its 15th season, and with a multitude of spin offs, it has introduced the art of drag to a whole generation of people outside of the LGBTQ+ bubble, who would otherwise have never encountered it.Īlong the way it’s made celebrities out of hundreds of drag queens and made a few dozen into genuine household names. The rise of International Drag Day has of course been underpinned by the exponential increase in popularity of drag, inspired by the extraordinary success of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which also aired its first season in 2009. But in recent years its visibility and popularity has increased significantly. I saw that there was no such day or event on an international platform in which we celebrated drag artists."įor the first few years it had a very limited audience because few knew about it, and there simply weren’t the quantity of drag fans that we have today. “This is the reason I launched this concept. "International Drag Day is a day where all around the world on every gay scene we take this opportunity to celebrate and thank the drag artists that add so much to gay life and culture,” Stewart told, who were the initial media partner. Although back then you had to work quite hard to find any. He had a drag fan page on Facebook and wanted a way to honour and give space to the queens he admired. ![]() It was started in 2009 by British drag fan Adam Stewart to celebrate the art of drag in all its forms. It has taken some time to really get a foothold in our consciousness, but International Drag Day this year is going to be a big event. You may be surprised to learn that International Drag Day started way back before RuPaul’s Drag Race arrived on our screens. ![]()
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