History of drag

So a while aback I did a post about the history of pride and that story intersects with the story of drag. This story is just as important as the story of pride. So let's start at the beginning.

Most of us are aware of drag because of Rupaul or Rupauls's drag race. Others are aware because of our local drag community. Drag has been around for longer than that. Some believe that modern day drag started in the theater back when men played all the parts including the women parts. It is believed that the term "drag" came from how the skirts drag on the ground.

Drag in Europe started in the late 1800s with the pantomime which is a musical comedy. There was usually a part called the pantomime dame which a guy in drag that plays a female part. They would usually play the part very over the top or they would act very masculine or butch.

Drag came to America thanks to Minstrel shows where originally the cast would mock black guys. It then moved on to mock all black people with men playing women. The first person to ever call themselves a drag queen in America was William Dorsey Swann in 1880 when he started to host drag balls. They were attended by former slaves and frequently raided by police. In 1896 William was convicted and sentenced to 10 months in jail for fake charges of "keeping a disorderly house" which is another way of saying running a brothel.

Over time the wrench players from the Minstrel shows became more refine. They became more like prima donnas which were influenced by European cross dressing shows. Julian Eltinge was one of the first drag performs to find success even going to Broadway. Also at the same time Bothwell Browne was getting fame on the west coast. During this time if you weren't a straight white guy you couldn't be a drag queen. If you didn't fit that description you could be punished. They didn't accept gay people during this time.

In the early to mid-1900s drag became linked to the LGBT community. Because being gay was basically a crime they had to change the locations for the gay drag shows. There were clubs where the gay drag queens could feel safe but they were not usually in the best areas. The more people accepted the more they accepted drag again.

In May 1959 there was a riot called the Cooper Do-nuts Riot in Los Angeles. It involved drag queens, lesbians, transgender women, and gay men. It was the first uprising of the LGBT community. The queens were also involved in the Compton's Cafeteria riot in August 1966 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. In L.A. on March 17, 1968 2 drag queens held a protest/ party to protest the treatment the LGBT community had received from the cops. Drag queens were also involved in the famous Stonewall riots. In 1976 there was a drag queen denied entry to a restaurant in Fire Island Pines, New York when one of his friends found out he dressed in drag and went to the pines by water taxi. It became a yearly thing for drag queens would go to the pines, becoming known as the invasion of the pines.

Since then we had the rise in popularity of the drag queen. In 1993 Rupaul Charles started his career. Rupaul even helped the careers of many drag queens with his show called Rupaul's drag race. Drag culture has been loved by millions thanks to Ru.

We now have drag queen story times in libraries. These have been highly controversial amongst parents. These started in 2015 and are now available in united states, Canada and the UK.

I hope you enjoyed this look at the history of drag queens. I enjoyed writing about this.