大象传媒

In the early morning hours of May 10, 2023, Brigitte Bandit waited her turn to testify before Texas lawmakers with a message on the back of her dress that read: 鈥淩estrict Guns, Not Drag.鈥�

On the front of her white sheath gown were the names of the 22 children killed during mass shootings in the cities of Uvalde and Allen. After waiting 13 hours, she finally got to speak against , a Texas bill criminalizing drag performances, and accused GOP lawmakers of failing victims and their families by 鈥渟pending more time in this legislative session targeting drag queens than gun violence.鈥� The provocation struck a nerve: After a Texas House committee member attempted to cut Bandit off before she had concluded her remarks, security escorted Bandit from the room.

Bandit, who resembles a harlequin Dolly Parton when made up in drag, had addressed the Texas Legislature once before: in March of 2023, opposing S.B. 12, which sought to criminalize drag artists who engaged in 鈥渟exually oriented performances鈥� in view of minors with a $10,000 fine and a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. In March, Bandit was so nervous that her voice shook during her speech, but during her second visit to the Capitol, she says she was 鈥渞eally fucking angry.鈥� Three children were among the nine people killed after a gunman opened fire in an Allen shopping center on May 6鈥攋ust four days earlier鈥攁nd the empty sentiments from conservatives about 鈥減rotecting kids鈥� rang hollow, she says.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 actually care about the truth,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he first time I went to the Capitol, I had a little bit of hope: Oh, they don鈥檛 know what they鈥檙e talking about. We just need to show them. But these people want to continue to spread their lies. They don鈥檛 care about the way this is affecting our community. They just really don鈥檛 care.鈥�

Bandit is part of a nationwide grassroots movement of drag performers fighting back against anti-LGBTQ legislation鈥攚hether by speaking at state legislatures, joining lawsuits challenging drag bans, organizing rallies and marches, or any other way they can raise their voices. This advocacy has been extraordinarily effective in helping to move the needle on discriminatory laws. Four months after Bandit鈥檚 first speech, a federal court declared S.B. 12鈥攚hich Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed into law on June 18, 2023鈥攖o be unconstitutional. 

According to the , six states enacted laws over the past few years that could be used to restrict public drag performances; only two of those are currently enforceable, neither of which explicitly names drag performances, while all others have been blocked in court. Courts have issued temporary injunctions pausing drag bans in Florida and Montana as civil rights groups fight to repeal the laws entirely. And in June 2023, Tennessee became the first state to see its anti-drag law, which banned drag from being performed either on public property or in front of minors, fully struck down. was particularly harsh in its scrutiny of drag artists: Repeat offenders were subject to a Class E felony, resulting in a maximum six-year prison sentence.

As one of the faces of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit challenging Texas鈥� S.B. 12, Bandit says she wept the day that the district court enjoined the law. She thought of how much drag has meant to her and what a profound impact it has had on her life since she first began performing in 2018. She had recently left an 鈥渋ntensely abusive relationship,鈥� she says, and was living in her mother鈥檚 house after cramming all the belongings she could fit into her Fiat. 鈥淚 had nothing,鈥� she recalls. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know who I was.鈥�

Bandit says finding drag helped her unlock an inner strength she never knew existed. She no longer felt the need to make herself small for other people鈥檚 comfort and stopped putting everyone else鈥檚 needs before her own. Drag became her suit of armor: a protective shield that allowed her to feel strong and ultimately use her voice in defense of the community that has shown her nothing but unconditional love. Although Bandit says that being part of the ongoing lawsuit against Texas has made this 鈥渙ne of the most challenging years鈥� of her life, she intends to keep fighting to make sure others have the same opportunities to experience the beauty and power of drag.

In a time of unprecedented anti-LGBTQ legislation, it鈥檚 fitting that drag performers are helping protect the decades of hard-won civil rights victories they themselves were instrumental in securing. Two of the leading figures in the early movement for LGBTQ equality were Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, trans women of color who sometimes referred to themselves as drag queens. As a nod to their groundbreaking work with the activist group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which provided housing for unhoused LGBTQ youth, Johnson and Rivera are often credited with kick-starting the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn. The landmark six-day demonstration against police brutality was among the earliest and most visible LGBTQ-led protests in the U.S., inspiring the first Pride parades the following year.

They want to make us look like the enemy. They want us to look like we are the problem. If we show them the complete opposite, we can show what drag actually is, which is love.鈥�
鈥擜thena Sinclair

More than 55 years later, drag performers are yet again on the front lines of LGBTQ activism, at another critical moment for the queer community. So far in 2024, more than 500 bills have been considered in states across the country seeking to curtail basic rights and protections for LGBTQ people, according to data provided by the National Center for Transgender Equality. That number has already surpassed the historic 499 anti-LGBTQ bills considered in 2023. The vast majority of those proposals are aimed at restricting the ability of trans youths and adults to access necessary medical care, educational opportunities, public bathrooms, and IDs that match their lived gender identity.

While this wave of GOP-led legislation has resulted in nearly half of U.S. states banning medical care for trans and nonbinary people, and limiting trans sports participation, the conservative crusade against drag is already waning. Of this year鈥檚 crop of bills targeting public drag performances, not a single piece of legislation, to date, has been signed into law. Most of 2024鈥檚 proposed drag bans have been killed in committee, not even advancing to floor debate. 

Across the country, drag performers have played a direct role in countering legislation restraining their freedom of expression. When a Senate committee debated South Dakota鈥檚 Senate Bill 184 in February, the Rapid City鈥揵ased drag performer Dixy Divine calling the legislation 鈥渦nnecessary, un-American, and unacceptable.鈥� If passed, S.B. 184 would have banned drag artists from exhibiting a 鈥済ender identity that is different from the performer鈥檚 biological sex鈥� in view of minors. Dressed in sparkly gold leggings and a modest black dress, she pointed out that drag has a long history in popular culture, dating from the comedies of William Shakespeare to the Robin Williams farce Mrs. Doubtfire: 鈥淲e鈥檝e been enjoying theater, dance, and plays that don鈥檛 take gender too seriously for centuries.鈥� 

The committee ultimately voted down South Dakota鈥檚 drag ban 5-1, marking a year in which no explicitly anti-LGBTQ laws have been passed in the state thus far, according to the ACLU of South Dakota. , a vaguely worded bill that could potentially be used to restrict the performance of drag on college campuses, was quietly signed into law by Gov. Kristi Noem (R) in March. H.B. 1178 restricts state universities from funding or hosting 鈥渙bscene live conduct,鈥� but what comprises obscenity is left undefined.

Arkansas signed its anti-drag bill into law despite protests from drag performers, but local activism helped to significantly restrain its scope. Athena Sinclair, a local drag artist and former Miss Gay Arkansas, on the steps of the state Capitol in opposition to , a bill written so broadly that critics public gender nonconformity. Sinclair, who also testified before a state Senate panel, led protesters in a rendition of 鈥淪easons of Love鈥� from the Broadway musical Rent, a demonstration that drew hundreds of attendees. The version of S.B. 43 ultimately enacted that it didn鈥檛 even explicitly mention drag at all.

Sinclair says the choice of song was a pointed message to lawmakers who have claimed that drag performers are predators and 鈥済roomers鈥濃�攅ven though no data exists to support those incendiary claims. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to get angry,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to lash out, but at the end of the day, that鈥檚 what they want. They want to make us look like the enemy. They want us to look like we are the problem. If we show them the complete opposite, we can show what drag actually is, which is love. Drag, to me, represents love because it is self-expression, and I don鈥檛 think that there is any better way to love than to love yourself. That鈥檚 what drag has done for me. It鈥檚 made me love myself and trust myself in everything that I do.鈥�

Another reason so many of these legislative efforts have failed is that, in the words of drag performer Flamy Grant, the bills are 鈥渟o on the far side of absurd that it鈥檚 just exhausting.鈥� 鈥淲e aren鈥檛 gonna go quietly,鈥� the singer-songwriter and podcaster from North Carolina adds. 鈥淒rag performers are showing up in drag at their city council offices and their state governments and saying, 鈥楾his is who I am. My art doesn鈥檛 exist to destroy society. It exists to make people know themselves and love themselves. It鈥檚 not to tear down values. It鈥檚 to expand what we value.鈥欌��

They know that the power of this art form is that it鈥檚 liberating. It鈥檚 freeing. It鈥檚 empowering, and it helps people feel seen.鈥�
鈥擣lamy Grant

Grant (whose moniker is a reference to the Christian recording artist Amy Grant) was among the performers who fought against the enforcement of Tennessee鈥檚 drag ban, which was revived by a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that dismissed the case in July 2024. Flamy Grant was scheduled to be a headliner at Blount Pride in East Tennessee when the September 2023 event . Although the drag ban had already been struck down in court, the county鈥檚 attorney general, Ryan Desmond, . With Grant as a plaintiff, the ACLU against Desmond, allowing the Pride festival to move forward as planned.

Grant knows that drag can play a major role in resisting anti-LGBTQ hate because she has seen it firsthand. Her post-show meet and greets, which deal with themes like surviving religious trauma and finding joy, are often longer than the performance, Grant notes, because bringing forward those dialogues gives people a space to heal. There are a lot of tears, she says, but a mother who lost her child to suicide once came up after a show to thank her. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e literally saving lives,鈥� the woman said.

That鈥檚 why Grant says protecting drag is so important: because it has the potential to reach people who really need to hear the message. 鈥淲hen you really get to know the drag community, the fearmongering is so silly,鈥� Grant says. 鈥淭he goal of drag bans is to isolate people from each other. Drag bans try to remove us from public life and keep us in dark corners of the world. They know that the power of this art form is that it鈥檚 liberating. It鈥檚 freeing. It鈥檚 empowering, and it helps people feel seen.鈥�