Drag, the Safe Space at the Centre of the LGBTQ+ Community

by Klara Blazejovska

Drag has a long history embedded in theatre and drag as we know it emerged in the Prohibition Era ©EILEEN BOTHWAYS

Drag is gender fluidity and the freedom to express it in a physical world. Many performers expose their inner-selves on stages.

Drag has progressively become a centre of the LGBTQ+ community since its beginnings in 1930s Prohibition Era America. Starting in speakeasies as a forbidden art, nearly a hundred years later, similarities can still be seen in the drag queens performing in bars today.

Vit Kobliha, a Czech-born queen started to explore drag during festivals and events ©VIT KOBLIHA

Drag queen Vit Kobliha says that although “according to law” he can dress as he pleases, “in reality” he can’t. Some things aren’t accepted and so drag performers create communities, "safe spaces”, to share their identities. It is a non-physical speakeasy filled with like-minded people who get together to celebrate and support each other. But not all is as glittery, filthy and fun as it seems.

Kobliha’s experience in drag is mostly positive and the judgment he has received over the years “turned into advice”. But he falls into the white-male-cisgender group that continues to dominate. “Gay men, especially older queens who have been doing drag for like thirty years, they still don’t accept us,” says female drag queen, Ellie Clarke.

Glasgow-based queen Ellie Clarke believes drag is for everyone ©ELLIE CLARKE

Drag king Wesley Dykes compares the drag community to London’s preserving capitalist culture, which caters to the wealthier, white population. “I am always the black performer on the line up, because they always only book one. So, it is not that they don’t have any it’s just that they haven’t told anyone.” And just like London is being called out, so is Drag scene.

Eileen Bothways, transmasc non-binary queen, is a first runner up in World Burlesque Games ©EILEEN BOTHWAYS

The marginalised group discriminates within its own circles. RuPaul’s controversial comments about transgender people are only one of the community’s issue. Eilleen Bothways, transgender Drag Queen from London, says: “Generally speaking, the UK scene is progressive and safe and reasonably inclusive. You'll still get a lot of assholes, but you just learn to gravitate towards your tribe just as you do in everyday life.”

To read Klara's investigation into the drag world and RuPaul's influence, pick up a copy of Issue 1.

Or CHECK OUT our gallery for picture report from Drag King night .

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