![]() The reason this panic is singling out trans people and drag performers is mostly opportunistic, says Sarah Warbelow, legal director for the Human Rights Campaign. Because the point is not to solve a problem, the point is to make the agitated group feel better. While something like the safety of children is often at the center of a panic, the attacks rarely single out sincere threats or offer real solutions to a problem. In an upcoming paper on white Christian nationalism (which Victor provided in lieu of an interview), he notes that in modern America, “Sex before marriage is widely accepted, homosexual people are widely accepted socially and same-sex marriage is now legal, there is a widespread acceptance of abortion as a medical procedure” and we’re seeing increased immigration and “increasing visibility of Black people and Asians” all of which create what Victor has referred to as “status stress” for nationalists.Īt the same time, “drug addiction, increasing teenage suicide, deindustrialization, and collapse of the small-town economy in many regions” create economic and lifestyle anxieties that drive the urge toward moral panic. Typical responses to a rumor panic include “protective behavior, such as the widespread buying of guns or preventing children from being in public places,” as well as mass attacks on strangers who are perceived as part of the threat, and “agitated information-seeking,” in which people swept up in the rage turn to each other to identify supposed threats. Whatever doesn’t conform to their expectations is a threat – and a target – and the louder and more visible it is, the greater the provocation.Īnti-drag campaigns have all of the characteristics of what New York sociologist Jeffrey Victor calls a “rumor panic,” a widespread but unfounded belief in the sudden appearance of a threat to communities and particularly to children, rooted in anecdotes and fabrication. Thus, “LGBTQ, in all its variations, is a deeply felt threat, especially open, colorful,” non-conforming behavior. Part of it is because of who they are: “ traditionally conceived, hierarchical male sexuality, both masculine identity and sexual activity, is a pillar of the extreme right belief system,” psychologist and professor of psychiatry at the UC San Diego J. So how does drag of all things end up in the crosshairs of a national hate campaign against trans people and ongoing cultural terrorism directed at queer rights? But while there are many trans drag stars, NCTE cautions, “Don’t assume that someone in drag is transgender or vice versa.” These days, of course, drag performers may be any gender or sexual orientation. The term “drag queen” first appeared in print in the incredibly named Gershon Legman’s 1941 paper “The Language of Homosexuality.” ![]() But this was different, as drag became a distinct style of performance, usually comedic and often musical. ![]() Supposedly the word arose from the length of the performer’s gowns and the elaborateness of their costumes, such that they’d be said to literally “drag” their outfits on and off the stage, but some historians dispute this etymology.Īctors have dressed and performed as characters of other genders for as long as modern theater has existed, of course. The National Center For Transgender Equality says the term “drag” originates in 19th-century English theater slang, originally referring to men who performed wearing what is considered traditionally to be women’s clothing.
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