Lably
Skip to content

Drag panic

Ongoing moral panic alleging drag is harmful to minors

  • 13 min read
  • 3 chapters

Related on Lably

Through United Kingdom, Australia and Canada

Lab · Class 6–12Archaeology & Discovery

Anti-drag sentiment (and broader anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment), which had been building for a number of years, became more prominent in 2019. Since then, a series of rallies and counter-rallies have been held in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and in other countries, largely against drag queens reading children's books at family events. Throughout 2022, there were at least 141 incidents of protests and harassment towards drag events in the United States alone. Drag panic has been suggested as a motivator for the fire bombing of an Oklahoma doughnut shop and the Club Q mass shooting, among other violent incidents.

Background

Throughout much of the early-twentieth century, drag performances in the United States were criminalized under cross dressing laws. The 1969 Stonewall Riots began after the New York City Police Department sought to arrest people for violating New York's informal "three-item rule" (which required individuals to wear at least three articles of clothing of their assigned sex).

As such laws were relaxed in the second half of the 20th century, drag appeared in works of wide popular relevance, such as Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Birdcage (1996), and the Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994). In the early 21st century, the art of drag continued to gain popularity and went mainstream in American culture, such as via RuPaul's Drag Race, Queen of the Universe, and Drag Den.

By 2019, as a reaction to the mainstream profile of drag, right-wing figures such as Chaya Raichik, Matt Walsh, Tucker Carlson, Michael Knowles, Dennis Prager, Candace Owens, and Ben Shapiro, began to link drag queens to the LGBT grooming conspiracy theory, calling to limit their visibility. Subsequently, a number of American states (with a Republican majority) proposed and approved laws intended to limit drag queen performances in public. Some protestors at LGBTQ+ and drag events have been armed with guns and explosives, and/or engaged in acts of violence or property damage. Similar anti-drag protests, sometimes amounting to threats or violence, have since been made in Australia, Canada, the UK and elsewhere, often influenced by these American right-wing figures.

Sign in to keep reading

2 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Psychology

PsychologyStudy of mental functions and behaviorsAnxietyUnpleasant emotionCognitionMental process dealing with knowledgePsychoanalysisSet of therapeutic techniques established by Sigmund FreudAmerican Psychological AssociationScientific and professional organizationPsychotherapyClinically applied psychology for desired behavior change