International Drag Day: LGBTQ+ people share what drag means to them

As part of International Drag Day on Tuesday (16 July), members of the LGBTQ+ community have shared what the performance art means to them. 

International Drag Day was founded by Adam Stewart in 2009. It celebrates all things drag globally and aims to share the creativity and culture of drag. 

Drag has a long history, with performances traced back to the 1800s. LGBTQ+ activist William Dorsey Swann is considered to be the first person to call themselves a “queen of drag”. 

In modern times, drag is also used to educate others through events such as Drag Queen Story Hours.  

One reader said the art form “means being your true self and finding acceptance and loving yourself”, while another said it stands for “rejecting gender and all its useless rules”. 

Many drag performers call themselves drag artists, as opposed to drag queens, and in 2022, Drag Race All Stars 4 winner Trinity the Tuck came out as trans non-binary. 

Other readers agreed that drag liberates people to be whoever they want to be and to embrace gender expressions. “The ability to express your true self without having to confirm to regular society,” is how one person described it. 

Another said: “Drag is my creative outlet, my gender expression and my everything.” 

Someone else said: “Drag means I can be feminine as a trans man without pressure or judgement,” while another said it was about “destroying roles about gender, making breaking the binary easier for us trans people.” 

And yet another said: ”I don’t think drag is gendered, I think the whole point is that it isn’t. It’s dramatic and awesome.”

Meanwhile, a trans reader shared: “My mum had a book about drag and it was the first time I saw anything out of the binary.” 

Elsewhere, it was described as: “A symbol of freedom of expression and the fight for equality,” while someone else added: “It’s endlessly important to me, it taught me so much about expression and gender bending.”