A wave of anti-drag sentiment has swept the nation in recent years, both in Utah and beyond.
The sentiment has developed online and physically manifested with incidents of protest at adult drag shows but also at all-ages drag shows and story times. Conservative pundits and leaders in red states who’ve worked to ban all-ages drag shows have in part catalyzed the anti-drag fervor and invigorated its online discourse.
What’s most concerning to drag performers, allies and the wider LGBTQ+ community is the threatening presence of far-right protestors at all-ages drag events.
The most recent example in Utah occurred at King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City’s Sugarhouse neighborhood on Sept. 24, 2023. Utah drag queen Tara Lipsyncki had since June of last year been hosting an all-ages drag story time at the shop, but authorities canceled her event in September due to a bomb threat.
Lipsyncki’s reaction was one that only a drag artist would have.
“Is it sad that we aren’t fazed anymore?” The Salt Lake Tribune credited Lipsyncki and her husband with thinking aloud. It makes sense that Lipsyncki and her husband weren’t phased.
A year prior, another establishment in Sugarhouse, tea and wine shop Tea Zaanti, received online backlash for hosting an all-ages drag show. Tea Zaanti sits just a few blocks away from Kings English, and Lipsyncki was also the main organizer there for an event in September 2022.
Videos from that September show at Tea Zaanti went viral, which showed a young girl dancing with a drag queen. Then, in January 2023, Lipsyncki organized another all-ages show at Tea Zaanti. This time, members of the right-wing group Proud Boys showed up donning masks and wielding semi-automatic rifles.
According to local drag king Liam Manchesthair, the Proud Boys spent their time accosting attendees who were coming in and out of the shop. Manchesthair added that the young employees of Tea Zaanti were especially rattled by the incident and threats of potential violence.
A wave of hate
Tara Lipsyncki’s quote about the bomb threat to King’s English denotes a type of unfazed acceptance that has become almost required of drag performers who operate today, particularly in red states.
Two months after Tea Zaanti went viral for hosting an all-ages drag show, a telephone survey conducted in November 2022 indicated that “some 25 percent considered [LGBTQ+ lifestyles] to be morally wrong.”
The survey’s results on LGBTQ+ lifestyles do not specify opinions on all-ages drag shows. However, it is these events that are often met with threats of physical violence, as observed in Salt Lake City.
The consistently observed anti-LGBTQ+ themes found on social media often imply that gay, transgender and queer people are ‘grooming’ children and include such slurs as ‘groomer,’ ‘pedophile’ and ‘predator’ in relation to the LGBTQ+ community.
The rhetoric found online has ridden the coattails of sentiment from laws recently passed in states like Florida, Tennessee and Georgia, all of which have attempted or succeeded in banning events like Lipsyncki’s all-ages story time.
According to NBC News, the month after the Florida Senate passed the Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics, posts on X (formerly Twitter) mentioning the queer community along with slurs increased by 406%.
Florida’s law bans discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in public schools and stands to this day, while Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act, which barred children from drag performances, was deemed unconstitutional and is in legal review with the Tennessee Attorney General’s office.
In total, according to ABC News, lawmakers in at least 16 states have introduced bills intended to restrict drag performances throughout 2023.
A specific, targeted online rhetoric
To look deeper at the available data from the last two years is to realize that, of the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric found online, a lot of it has been directed at the drag community.
According to the non-profit LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD, perpetrators most frequently targeted drag events and performers (138 incidents between June 2022 and April 2023). GLAAD went on to report that the “false ‘groomer’ conspiracy theory was the most-cited anti-LGBTQ+ trope.”
Furthermore, most anti-drag rhetoric has centered around all-age shows. A report by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found that 49% of the 203 anti-drag incidents tracked over the course of a year involved drag story-time events.
So, the experiences of drag artists in Utah are not out of the ordinary. They reveal a trend of hate that begins online following discrimination-enflaming events, like bills being passed and dangerously worded tweets or statements from lawmakers.
One of the perpetrators of anti-all-ages-drag rhetoric online is the social media account “Libs of TikTok,” responsible for reposting the 2022 Tea Zaanti video and enflaming the account’s followers.
A different story for story-time
The opinions on all-ages drag shows, found in the content of accounts like “Libs of TikTok,” are shared by their account followers and protestors seen at such events. However, these sentiments stand in stark contrast to drag artists’ self-professed goals when it comes to their all-ages shows.
In their biography, prominent drag queen RuPaul argues that drag is not about sexualization but is instead “all about love, saying that we are all drag queens.”
The statement “we are all drag queens,” rather than trying to upend anyone’s way of life, instead serves as a way of thinking that breaks down traditional gender barriers. It’s the kind of thinking that enhances critical awareness and gives those who maybe don’t feel like they fit in a healthier way of seeing themselves.
A contestant on RuPaul’s famous TV show, “RuPaul Drag Race,” NYC-based drag performer Rosé took RuPaul’s words a step further.
“We’re all in drag, right? We assume a physical presence to match what society has told us we are … Drag, at its best, is dismantling that expectation,” Rosé told NBC News last June.
According to local drag queen Trey McEuen, who is best known as Hysteria to audiences across the Salt Lake Valley, the intention of all-ages drag shows is more about building community than anything else.
“[All-ages drag shows are] an attempt to build community in a way that celebrates queer people … that allows for expression and creativity,” McEuen said. “And [it’s] really to inspire not only the kids who are there, but parents, family and friends, too — to be a part of the community, and see what happens when drag is used; to put these events on together.”
Besides teaching kids how to think outside the box, drag story-times also teach them how to love themselves for who they are through playful expression.
“[Whether you’re] a queer person who hasn’t come out yet or non-queer folk anywhere on the sexuality spectrum … when you come to an all-ages drag show, what you’re going to see is empowered performers who are brave, confident and proud of themselves – who have decorated themselves in these costumes, makeup, wigs, etcetera,” McEuen said.
Children are not forced to attend or participate in all-ages shows, and the content espoused during family-friendly shows is much different than what audiences may witness in shows for adults. McEuen referenced the intentionality of the all-ages drag shows at WB’s Eatery in Ogden, which they host on a rotating schedule.
“So, when we do an all-ages show, we’re doing things without profanity; we’re wearing costumes that are family-appropriate, but at the same time, it’s still celebratory, extravagant and spectacular,” McEuen said.
In an analysis for PBS, Associated Press editor and writer Jeff McMillan noted the distinction between drag and something like burlesque, a separate form of entertainment.
Whereas drag shows for adults are often tailored as such, all-ages drag shows involve storybook readings, appearances of familiar characters from pop culture, crafts and “gender-bent” performances of musical Disney numbers.
There have been no reports of child abuse from any drag story hours in the United States. Still, due to ongoing rhetoric and actions among right-wing groups, drag kings and queens, writers, activists, and allies continue to be vigilant in their work and activism against discrimination and hate.
