States that outlaw drag performances are misguided, fear a problem that doesn't exist
Hanging in my upstairs hallway is an enlargement of a 105-year-old family snapshot. The young adult is wearing a wool plaid 3-piece suit and a newsboy cap. The poser is smoking a cigar and has one hand resting on the pocket-watch chain attached to the vest.
The subject of the photo is my grandmother, Karen.
As a woman back-in-the-day she was allowed to frequent dances at Dania Hall on Snoose Boulevard (Cedar Avenue) in Minneapolis, but not to enter a bar.
I've seen that photo since I was a child. Did it influence me? Certainly. Was it harmful? Not in the least. If anything, it instilled in me from a young age the desire to challenge the patriarchy.
Last week Tennessee enacted a law that makes it illegal for anyone to wear the clothing of a person of the opposites sex if they will be visible to minors.
Hypocrite Gov. Bill Lee, who appeared in drag himself, signed this bill making a first offense a misdemeanor and any additional offenses felonies.
I wonder how Gerald Drake feels about this? He appeared before tens of thousands of Minnesota's children as the evil stepmother in Cinderella at the Children's Theatre in Minneapolis. Terrible parent that I am, I took my children every year.
What kind of a crazy slippery slope of nonsense are we going down here?
Will community theater groups no longer be able to perform South Pacific?
After all, Luther (Ray Walston in the movie) wears a coconut bra and grass skirt while singing "Honey Bun."
Are only new things going to be illegal, like perhaps the Jax song "Victoria's Secret" ("She's an old man who lives in Ohio")? Or will we need to go way back and ban everything by Shakespeare? ( all of the actors, even Juliet, at the Globe were male).
The mind boggles at the inanity of the Tennessee legislation. What, specifically are they afraid of? Sure, Drag Queen Story Hour was their trigger, but why weren't they set off by Tootsie? Mrs. Doubtfire? Some Like It Hot? To Wong Fu? Bosom Buddies? Kinky Boots? Maude Frickert (Jonathan Winters in drag)? And, as those of us of a certain age can recall, Milton Berle as the not-quite-drag-but-still character Louie the Lilac on the old Batman TV show?
Can anyone show us evidence-based proof that viewing ANY of these shows did anything to children besides entertain them?
Or is legislation such as the new laws in Tennessee and Arkansas the work of people who are transparently bullies and who have found that sponsoring and enacting laws such as these panders to a base of constituents who must be terribly insecure about their own sexuality and their vulnerability to, gasp, seeing a man in a dress?
Quite frankly, it seems to me that those people, both the legislators and the constituents, need to get out more. There's a great big wonderful world out there full of all types of people. and we need to appreciate them for who they are and enjoy life together.
Seeing my grandma in her brother's suit in that photo since I was young didn't damage me one bit. In fact, I'm quite sure it motivated me.
Times Writers Group member Karen Cyson is a child-care provider in Stearns County and the coordinator for Central Minnesota Mensa. Her column is published the third Sunday of the month.
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: States that outlaw drag performances are misguided
