7mo ago

The art of drag has become a target. With Pride Month nigh, performers are organizing to fight back

apnews.com The art of drag has become a target. With Pride Month nigh, performers are organizing to fight back

About 10 drag artists from around the United States are banding together to protect and promote their art form.

“Drag is joy, but it’s under attack. Our very existence, our self-expression, our art — all of it is being threatened. And we’ve had enough.”

That’s the opening salvo of Qommittee, a group of drag performers banding together to protect and promote their art form, as it announced its formation ahead of June’s LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

“We’ve always had to fight tooth and nail for our place in this world,” the group said in a news release Wednesday. “But now, we’re also battling a tidal wave of hate — doxxing, harassment, death threats, armed protests, bombings, and even shootings.”

Qommittee consists of about 10 drag performers nationwide who have experienced, directly or indirectly, threats, harassment or violence related to their art form. One had a venue firebombed in Ohio; one performed at Club Q in Colorado Springs and helped victims the night of the shooting there that killed five people; and one worked at Club Q and at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, where a gunman killed 49 people in 2016.

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The idea that drag isnt a conservative value is so odd to me, for so many years in the past men were the only ones to be female characters on stage. I would think they would like that these people are keeping that tradition alive. Hell they have gone so far as to get women to play the men, this seems like the artistic expression that started the movement in the first place. Real traditional values here.
- These idiots have no idea about that sort of thing and would be the first to call any actor showing less machismo than John Wayne a f-g anyway.
  
  So much machismo that he dodged the draft for WWII.
  
  And St. Reagan made training movies for the Army safe in Hollywood.
  
  wasent it speculated or rumors that john had a male lover, if was not just out right gay? I might be remembering something weird, but I thought it was a story when the whole Lincon had a male lover.
  
  I think that there are rumors that pretty much every macho guy ever secretly had a male lover, so I wouldn't put much stock in those.
  That said, here's how John Wayne used to sit-
  
  Maybe it's me, but it seems a bit on the fay side of things...
  
  Hey good for him, I just wish if he was gay that he could have been open about it. Maybe its ok as he is able to disconnect his character from his real life (not that anyone needs to know your relationship or sexualaity outside of your partner). Also when I did smoke I never looked that cool.
- The conservative dream is the rebirth of a past that never existed

16 comments