New fvckers, same fvckery: Conservatives’ endless fixation with drag shows

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May 24

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One August night in 1953, a reporter from The Miami Herald marched down to the city’s most popular drag bar, Leon & Eddie’s, determined to figure out what the hell the queers were up to on so-called “Powder Puff Lane.” His scandalized report in the paper the next day assured Miamians it was as bad as they had feared. “Femmic Joints Here,” he declared (referring to female impersonators), “Are Lure for Perverts!”.

It was the glorious fifties, America’s high noon. The Allies had won the war, the Cold War was fully frozen over, and the nation’s economy was booming as never before. Sure, things had gone a little haywire during World War II—women found they quite liked being in the workforce, while men cooped up in army barracks found they quite liked communal showers—but the G.I. bill and suburban sprawl had made things right. An era of righteousness was dawning across the country, and it would require a wave of moral panic to make sure it stuck. It didn’t matter, of course, whether the wave was manufactured; it just had to sound good.

“There was a video out of Dallas where they had all these young kids putting money in the underwear of these drag queens!” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis gestured to show how a dollar bill could be inserted into the waistband of his own ill-fitting suit, should someone ever want to do so. This was verifiably false—the video in question clearly shows kids putting dollar bills into the hands of drag performers, who are bouncing like Kidz Bop dancers and wearing more clothing than an NFL cheerleader would ever be permitted—but that wasn’t the point. DeSantis was riding this manufactured scandal right to Florida’s business regulation agency, which, under his direction, filed a complaint attempting to revoke the liquor license of R House, a bar in Miami’s Wynwood district where kids had also been filmed at a drag brunch. R House, he added triumphantly, even had a kids’ menu.

The agency’s complaint, filed in July 2022, accused R House of “disorderly conduct” and claimed the all-ages drag show violated the state’s lewdness statute. It also cited a Florida State Supreme Court decision from 1947, which had ordered the closure of another Miami drag bar, the Ha Ha Club, on the grounds that its female impersonators were a sexualized public nuisance (the owner later opened Leon & Eddie’s, the pervert-luring establishment that caught The Miami Herald’s attention). In that invocation of a seventy-five-year-old court decision—authored by a judge who once called segregation “divine intent” and said the Ha Ha Club had “evil connotations”--DeSantis’ administration had folded history onto itself; they had given away the game.

New fuckers, same old fuckery.

Like many of Governor DeSantis’ stunts, this one probably won’t work (while the complaint is still being litigated, experts are skeptical of its merits). But it doesn’t matter. The moral panic over drag performance has been fully resurrected, stitched back together with the hysteria of Christian nationalism and animated by fear and disgust at transgender identity. A new dawn of righteousness is once again spreading across the country—by divine intent, if the neo-segregationists are to be believed--and if we do not organize against it, this one will stick.

No More Disney Brunch, Bitch

*Ivy St James, Hayley Kiyoko, and LiberTea. (VIA Instagram: @theladylibertea)*

To date, Republican majorities in 20 state legislatures have proposed laws restricting drag performances. Three have passed, in Tennessee, Montana and Florida; Arkansas passed a watered-down ban with limits on all “adult-oriented” shows.

Tennessee’s drag ban, which Governor Bill Lee signed into law in March, would prohibit “adult cabaret entertainment” anywhere it could be seen by a minor, and specifies that adult cabaret includes male or female impersonators whose performance “appeals to a prurient interest.” It was temporarily blocked by a federal judge hours before taking effect, following a lawsuit filed by a Nashville-based LGBTQ+ theater company: the judge said the overly-broad language violated constitutionally protected free speech. The law remains blocked at least until the trial begins on May 22, but that apparently didn’t stop a Nashville cop from warning Hayley Kiyoko not to bring drag queens onstage at her concert there (she did it anyways, because girls like girls, not cops).

In the meantime, other states wasted no time filling the void. Montana one-upped Tennessee by explicitly banning drag story-time programs at public schools and libraries, as well as prohibiting minors from attending “sexually oriented performances on public property,” using the same “prurient interest” language copped from Tennessee’s bill. That bill awaits Governor Greg Gianforte’s signature.

In Florida, Republicans passed a bill prohibiting anyone under 21 from seeing “adult live performances” that depict any kind of “lewd conduct or exposure.” It also bans drag story hours, and prohibits local governments from issuing public permits for events where such performances could take place—a direct attack on outdoor pride festivals and parades. Governor DeSantis hasn’t signed the bill into law yet, but Port St. Lucie canceled its April pride parade anyways, restricting all pride events to people over 21.

During a legislative hearing on Florida’s bill—titled “Protection of Children” because “Violation of Constitution” was presumably unavailable—a Republican lawmaker said the quiet part out loud. “If it means erasing a community because you have to target children, then damn right we oughta do it,” said Rep. Randy Fine, whose wife just hosted a children’s charity fundraiser featuring scantily-clad burlesque dancers, attended by at least one toddler.

The penalties for violating these laws are steep, ranging from thousands of dollars in fines to misdemeanor charges, jail time, loss of an establishment’s liquor licenses, or even full-blown felony charges. In an early version of Arizona’s bill, drag artists who perform in front of children would get a prison sentence of up to ten years and listed on the sex offender registry (the senate later passed a less extreme version, but Arizona’s Democratic governor is ultimately expected to veto the law).

Attaching outrageously high penalties to politically motivated laws is a classic move in the conservative playbook. Here in Atlanta, for instance, people arrested during Stop Cop City protests, many of whom were simply attending a protest-related music festival, have been slapped with domestic terrorism charges, which come with a prison sentence of up to 35 years. Doctors who provide gender-affirming care to minors can have their medical licenses revoked. People who obtain abortions can be charged with the death penalty. From Republican lawmakers’ perspective, it doesn’t matter whether anyone will ever really receive that sentence: the threat that they could is enough of a chilling effect.

It’s already happening: local governments are removing drag shows from their pride events, moving events inside, or canceling pride celebrations altogether. And with armed groups like the Proud Boys swarming drag story hours and threatening performers in front of children, some drag queens are even getting trained in CPR and gunshot trauma first aid, which tells you everything you need to know about how much Republicans really care about kids’ safety.

Guard dogs of the status quo

Despite the particularly venomous bloodlust with which conservatives are hounding drag performers, drag performers aren’t even the real prey. The real big game is the wholesale suppression of gender traitors, of every age and disposition. Every state with a drag ban on the books has also banned gender-affirming care for trans kids, trans girls and women in sports, and restricted what schools can talk and teach about gender identity and sexual orientation. The dozen other states considering drag bans have done some mix of the same.

In 2023 alone, Republican-dominated state legislatures have proposed 474 bills targeting LGBTQ+ people. These bills are wildly unpopular with the public, but the conservative movement lost interest in public opinion long ago. The fact that many of those legislatures achieved their GOP majority through gerrymandering and voter suppression does not make their legislating any less dangerous. Queer people will die because of these laws, and they know it. Perhaps they even welcome it, if they think of it at all.

But thus always is it. As in the post-war era, America is being rocked by social forces that threaten the enduring supremacy of the status quo. In the tumultuous years after World War II, possibilities once unthinkable suddenly emerged: Black Southerners demanded the end of segregation; European artists found refuge in New York and created the modern art movement; gay men and lesbians began congregating, first in Mafia-owned bars and then in organized political groups like the Mattachine Society and Daughter of Bilitis. Drag shows, wildly popular in America since the 19th century, proliferated across the country.

But the status quo always has its loyal foot-soldiers—hypocritical politicians, church leaders, cops—and then as now, they arrive to protect it. In 1952, Miami passed a law banning female impersonators from performing within city limits. Detroit did so in 1944. Minneapolis used the excuse of urban renewal to condemn the drag bar district and tear the buildings down. In cities across the country, police began resurrecting antiquated cross-dressing laws to round up lesbians, trans women, and drag performers. Billy Graham appeared on millions of brand-new television sets to remind people that “we Americans believe in God.” If the nation refuses to travel the righteous path, there are ways to make them walk. If communities need to be erased to target the children, then damn right we oughta do it.

It won’t work—it never does. But in the time it takes the unstoppable force of human flourishing to topple the latest guard dogs of patriarchal Christian white supremacy, a lot of us will suffer. Some of us will die. And none of us will be fully spared; we’re all perverts in their eyes, after all, luring their children into the underworld with sequins and hairspray.

Our flourishing is inevitable, but how long the suffering lasts until then is up to us. If it takes every single one of us to keep our communities from being erased, from protecting our children, then damn right we oughta do it.

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Rachel Garbus is a writer, satirist, and oral history podcast-maker based in Atlanta, GA. To keep up with the lesbian Joneses, she co-parents an anxious dog with her girlfriend and goes too far out of her way to recycle glass.

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