Going to see a drag queens show in Florida is now prohibited for minors. Ron DeSantis, US state governor and potential 2024 presidential candidate, signed a law into effect on Wednesday that prohibits minors from accessing medication for gender transitioning or going to drag queen shows.
This is the latest repressive measure in the United States, a few months after a huge controversy broke out in Tennessee. The State had decided to prohibit access to minors from drag queen shows, but also to prohibit them from performing in public places, where the artists risked being seen by minors, before the measure took effect. be temporarily suspended by a judge.
In total, no less than 14 American states have taken restrictive measures against drag queens to limit their rights to perform, such as Arizona, Kentucky, or Oklahoma, notes the Time. “Such measures legitimize certain homophobic actions. And homophobia is not a point of view, it’s a crime”, cannot help but remind the Parisian Lolita Banana, Mexican drag queen and competitor of the first season of “Drag Race France”. .
A false hypersexualization of drag queens
For Paloma, big winner of “Drag Race France”, there is a “false hypersexualization of drag queens which is systemic” and “a false debate which mixes everything”. “People confuse what happens in a nightclub at 2 a.m. in front of an adult audience and what we are going to do in public places or in a workshop for children”, abounds with the Parisian the performer, who is also an actress and that we could see in the last season of “Balthazar”.
“Yes, some drag queens do shows that may be for adults only, but it’s always in nightclubs or cabarets, and these are not places made for children! she recalls, emphasizing that there are as many different shows as there are artists and taking the example of the show’s tour, which has met with great success.
“It’s like saying that you shouldn’t take the children to the Crazy Horse. Obviously, it’s not for them! There are plenty of things that are not made for children, do we pass a law to prohibit them from doing so? points out Lolita Banana. Paloma goes on to another comparison, evoking “the woman cut in two” in magic shows: “It’s as if we forbade all magicians to perform in front of children because some do this trick and it can scare. For drag, it’s the same. »
A “diversionary technique”
The two stars of “Drag Race France” point to a “hypocrisy” around this question. “In the United States, they allow terrible things about guns, and drag queens are brought up to hide the bigger issues. The American drag star RuPaul, pioneer of the genre and creator of the “Drag Race” franchise in the United States, also split a vitriolic speech on Instagram in March against the laws brought by conservative states .
He evoked a “classic distraction technique from the real issues for which politicians were elected: jobs, health care, the protection of our children in their schools. But we know that these detractors are incompetent to solve the real problems. They are looking for easy targets to give the impression of being effective, ”he insisted, calling on Americans to register en masse on the electoral lists.
In France, reading workshops targeted by detractors
If the United States is the first to legislate explicitly against drag shows, France also suffers its share of controversy. Reading workshops for children organized by drag queens in libraries in several French cities are regularly threatened or canceled due to fears of disruption, such as in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) or Lamballe (Côtes-d ‘Armour).
In Saint-Senoux, in Ille-et-Vilaine, a far-right group even organized a demonstration on May 13 in front of the media library where a workshop was held. “They use the pretext of the readings to attack us, because we represent a danger for them. But it’s a very cowardly way of using kids, like they’re dumb and can’t make their own choices. They understand the exaggeration side, the theatrical side of these workshops”, reacts Lolita Banana, who regularly hosts brunches with families in Paris “to introduce her art”.
Faced with threats, Paloma “can’t help but want to defend (her) drag colleagues. They read fairy tales or children’s books, dressed very extravagantly, like clowns. It’s not at all sexual, she insists. The real problem for our detractors is that we awaken children to gender issues, which is a subject on the National Education program.
The drag-queen also evokes the change in tone she has faced since she wrote a weekly column on the “Quotidien” program: “I haven’t received any negative messages for a year. Those who don’t like drag didn’t know me, since they didn’t watch Drag Race France. From DailyI get comments that say “Stay away from our schools, stay away from our kids”. As soon as the public is wider, it is the risk, ”she regrets.
The fear that a breach is opening in France
Faced with the laws that abound in the United States, Paloma and Lolita Banana cannot help but remain cautious about the evolution of the situation in France. “For the moment, I think we are relatively calm, we have politicians who are not extremist for the most part. There is a certain notion of the protection of art in France”, wants to believe Paloma, even if “nothing is ever acquired” and that it is “important to monitor our freedoms”.
Out of the question, however, to stop: “We will continue to do shows for children, adults, grandmothers, grandfathers. We will continue because it is our job,” concludes Lolita Banana. The second season of “Drag Race France”, which is scheduled to be broadcast this summer on France 2, will give even more visibility to these artists, they hope.
2023-05-20 11:30:00
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