In PC Olympics, Trans Beats Drag

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The Glasgow, Scotland, alternative Free Pride festival is too politically correct for Dan Savage, who notes the organizers rationale:

At Free Pride we hope to create a safe space for all people within the LGBTQIA+ community. We understand that sometimes this will disappoint some people within the community, however our priority is always to put the needs of the most marginalised groups within our community first. This is why, after much discussion,the trans and non binary caucus decided not to have drag acts perform at the event.

The organizers further explain their decision:

When individuals from a less marginalized group make individuals from a more marginalized group feel uncomfortable—or if they might make them feel uncomfortable—the individuals from the less marginalized group can and should be excluded for the comfort of individuals from the more marginalized group.

Savage recounts that:

After getting a little outraged feedback, some of which violated Free Pride’s “safe space” policies (boo hoo hoo), Free Pride announced their new-and-improved policy on drag acts: Drag performers who are “trans and non-binary” will be welcome to perform at Free Pride, but the ban remains on cis drag performers.

In other words, a performer like Albin/Zaza from the musical La Cage of Folles would be excluded from performing “I Am What I Am,” given the offensive nature of gay drag and the veto granted to the more-greatly oppressed trans activists.

More. Here’s coverage by London’s Evening Standard, Drag queens banned from Pride event ‘because they may offend transgender people’.

No, this isn’t just a made up issue. From the progressive site ThinkProgress, a very, very, serious analysis of The Quiet Clash Between Transgender Women and Drag Queens.

13 Comments for “In PC Olympics, Trans Beats Drag”

  1. posted by Mike in Houston on

    So a kerfluffle at a one-off event – that btw reversed course and now allows drag performers – is now Stephen’s cassis belli.

    After progressives spoke out – like Panti Bliss – it’s now a non issue.

    Do keep up.

    • posted by craig123 on

      No, they are not allowing gay drag performers (did you bother to read either the post or linked articles)? They are allowing transgendered performers to perform, but not gay drag performers (that is, men who view themselves as gay and who do drag).

      Also not a one off; the fight between trangendered activists and gay drag performers has been ongoing and will continue to be. I’d say that merits mention in IGFCultureWatch.

      • posted by Mike in Houston on

        Yes, oh wise sockpuppet. I did read the articles and also dug a little deeper.

        I’ll take my cue from the organizers directly:
        https://freeprideglasgow.wordpress.com/

        There was never a ban on drag queens and kings attending Free Pride.

        There was a decision to not book any drag acts, which has been overturned. Free Pride now welcomes drag performers of all genders and gender identities.

        Free Pride is inherently challenging; we have known that from the start. As a small organisation, we disagree with the highly commercialised and depoliticised nature of mainstream Pride. Our aim continues to be to create a safe, accessible space for the most marginalised LGBTQIA people.

        This issue was picked up by many famous LGBTQIA bloggers, spreading this local issue internationally. Sadly, this attracted not just fair criticism, but also an immense amount of harassing, abusive behavior. This harassment took the form of rather nasty insults and threats which were aimed at free pride organisers. This kind of abusive behavior is unacceptable.

        The original decision was made because many trans members of Free Pride have had negative experiences with drag acts veering towards racism, misogyny and transphobia; the lack of contact with the drag community contributed.

        We made a mistake, and we apologise.

        Drag is an art form, a form of expression and performance, a community with a rich history. The most useful comments and advice that we have been sent from around the world have been from trans people of colour and working class trans people who support drag and have let us know that, without it, they might not have had access to trans/queer culture at all. We are extremely grateful to those individuals who have contacted us to explain this.

        Drag, like all forms of art and performance, can entertain us and challenge us. But it also has the capacity to perpetuate oppression such as misogyny, transphobia and racism. Free Pride is a safe and accessible space for all of us to join and celebrate.

        We hope to learn from this in order to foster the kind of community we want to see. We believe there is a greater need for dialogue within, and indeed between the trans and drag communities. We look forward to creating spaces where these dialogues take place with mutual compassion and respect.

        Thank you for reading, and we hope you’ll join us.

      • posted by Houndentenor on

        Mike is correct. Your information is old. They have reversed their policy. This is no longer a story.

        http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/07/22/22585311/free-pride-glasgow-we-made-a-mistake-and-we-apologise

  2. posted by Jorge on

    The dingbats running Free Pride don’t seem to understand what pride parades and protests are about: demanding that the straight majority learn to tolerate our presence. “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.” But if we can’t get used to each other—if certain segments of the queer community can’t tolerate certain other segments of the queer community—what kind of a message does that send the straight majority?

    Smart man.

    It reminds me of my thoughts after I attended an LGBT pride event where I found certain things excessively raunchy. Though religion may oppose it, God himself wants it to happen. It’s not that difficult to understand why:

    Let’s set aside the fact that drag is often a way for people questioning their gender to express themselves—I know several trans men who were drag kings before transitioning…

    Actually I was thinking more along the lines of controlling homophobia. Using a more dramatic act within your control can be protection against a the lack of control over whether other people perceive something ordinary about yourself as dramatic. “We’re queer, we’re here” has a better ring to it than “You’re queer, you’re here.”

  3. posted by Jorge on

    Also not a one off; the fight between trangendered activists and gay drag performers has been ongoing and will continue to be. I’d say that merits mention in IGFCultureWatch.

    I’m not convinced.

    I certainly think the transgender bible takes exceptional offense to the idea that transgender = drag. It is no more bother to me than a body check. Their vigilance has allowed the transgender community to succeed at attaining mainstream acceptance of their existence. It is hard to argue with success.

    But I haven’t seen much evidence of what you claim.

  4. posted by Throbert McGee on

    Also not a one off; the fight between trangendered activists and gay drag performers has been ongoing and will continue to be. I’d say that merits mention in IGFCultureWatch.

    And it’s not an uninteresting fight. The trans activists have a point that drag performances can (sometimes) be awkwardly reminiscent of Blackface Minstrel shows. Supporters of drag can reply that “minstrel show” should in fact not be a swear-word; these shows often perpetuated degrading stereotypes of African-Americans, but they also introduced huge audiences to beautifully-performed versions of black spirituals. Individual examples from the genre have to be judged on their own merits.

  5. posted by Tom Jefferson III on

    So, the event itself realized its mistake and changed its policy. Sounds like whatever process they have to sort out problems and concerns, apparently, works.

    Anytime a man “acted like” a woman on stage or in films the shorthand (we do like shorthand and the ability to oversimplify/dumb things down) was to call it, “drag”. The history may go deeper then that, in terms of word origin.

    Quentin Crisp (1908 – 1999) once made the comment (Celluloid Closet documentary) that drag was once used to make you look more beautiful, but he thought it had become more self-mocking.

    This became something of a confusing term, because it does not address “the why”, and it can also sometimes confuse sexual orientation with gender identity.

    • posted by craig123 on

      So, the event itself realized its mistake and changed its policy. Sounds like whatever process they have to sort out problems and concerns, apparently, works.

      Once again, for those who have not bothered to actually read the post or linked articles, or my comment above, the policy was NOT CHANGED for gay drag performers, who remain banned. If you are a self-identified transgendered performer (that is, performing as a transwomen or transman, but not doing drag), you can sing or dance or whatever. But gay drag performers, doing the art known as drag, are banned. That’s the controversy. And it’s part of a growing dispute between drag performers and transgendered activists, beyond this particular event.

      But some would rather just snark and be smug.

      • posted by Mike in Houston on

        Not just wrong, adamantly and willfully wrong.

        Read their website and statements… I provided a convenient link along with their entire statement.

        That’s not snark, just truth. Do keep up.

      • posted by tom Jefferson 3rd on

        I did read ALL of the comments here and the comments and clarification from the group running the pride event.

        Separate from this incident, it is possible that some transgender people don’t like self-identifed draq kings or queens or vice

  6. posted by tom Jefferson 3rd on

    …vice versa. I know people who have gone through the gender reassignment process, and I have known a fair number of draq queens/kings who see what they do as just a career move or a subversive form of rebellion against gender roles. To make a larger generalization, I would need much more information.

  7. posted by tom jefferson 3rd on

    A final thought on the matter;

    At some point a gay pride committe in Scottland opted not to use its limited budget to hire drag performers.

    Conservative-libertarians should see this as free market capitalism at work, but someone wanted to over estimate the power of the PC crowd…and take Dan Savage seriously.

    Now Dan Savage says some smart things and his sex advice is undetstandable a hit (especially with University students)

    However, I am not sure that he has much great insight on Scottland or whatever conflict exists between some draq queens and some transgender people.

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