The perception that drag equals sex sparked controversy this past summer when a drag bingo fundraiser planned to benefit The Child Advocacy Center of Greater Rochester was canceled due to widespread online backlash. Many commenters objected to a drag-themed fundraiser being tied to a child-welfare charity, arguing it made the event inappropriate or was misaligned with the organization’s mission.
David Chappius, who is a co-owner of Rochester nightclub ROAR and also known as prominent local drag queen DeeDee Dubois, said this hatred directed toward drag creators is familiar in the local online community.
“It’s really hard for us even to advertise [online] for ROAR … All I’m really doing is paying for hate,” Chappius said. “It’s putting our stuff in front of people [who] just want to say we’re terrible and we’re pedophiles.”
Sexual content in drag performances is not the problem. Rather, Chappius pointed toward the way drag’s sexuality is perceived by audiences who — a majority of the time — have not seen a drag performance and do not understand the medium.
“If someone’s sexualizing it, it’s them, not us,” he said. “I do drag for entertainment purposes, as do a lot of performers. I’m not out there to trick anybody. I’m just out there to have a good time and entertain you.”
Drag queen Vivian Darling, who was crowned Miss Gay Rochester 2023, said they have personally experienced backlash framing drag performances as sexual or inherently inappropriate.
“I’ve actually been the target of a few attacks in the past and [been] labeled as a predator,” they said. “The thing I tell myself is I know what I stand for, my audiences know what I stand for, what I put up with [and] what I don’t put up with.”
The rationale for these attacks, Darling said, lies within a greater question of bigotry.
“Because the drag community consists [of a] majority … of gay and trans people, that immediately — because people have prejudice against them — drag is labeled as sexually deviant when it’s not,” they said. “Because we’re such a [minority] group, it’s easy, because there are more voices screaming at us than with us.”
Drag king Valentino Rose was Mr. Gay Rochester from 2017-18 and said drag kings navigate additional challenges unique to them — including having to fight for representation, respect and visibility within the drag community. The controversy surrounding drag’s sexuality is something he and all drag performers have become hyper-vigilant of when partaking in kid-friendly performances. He added that the idea drag can only exist in one explicit form does not explore the full range of what the medium has to offer.
“Drag is pretty much art and art comes in many different ways,” Rose said. “It’s therapy, it’s definitely a getaway. And I’m definitely going to continue [doing] drag until my wheels fall off.”
Darling, who recently took a step away from nightly drag performances in club settings to pursue more time-committed projects such as stage musicals and shows, also spoke to the medium’s versatility.
“Much like how TV is made for a vast array of audiences — there’s children’s TV, late night shows, violent TV, there’s also just sitcoms made for the entire family — I feel like drag can be arranged for everyone,” she said.
Drag is rarely granted the artistic credibility given to other performance mediums that regularly shift tone, audience and content, Darling noted.
“Any other performer — on TV, in the movies, on stage — they get the grace of knowing they can play different roles for different audiences, and it’s understood that everything they’re in isn’t going to be appropriate for everyone,” Darling said. “We’re just asking for that same grace.”
Despite the online backlash fueled by what Darling and other performers equated to hatred rooted in misinformation, the hyper-sexualization of drag is another barrier performers have to face, but not something that minimizes the art form.
“Drag performers are some of the strongest people in the world, because they’ve faced a lot of the ugliness the world has,” Darling said. “And instead of letting it beat them down, it makes them more determined. It pushes them even further to try and be a beacon of light and kindness.”
Kalysta Donaghy-Robinson is a multimedia journalist and writer based in Upstate New York covering arts, culture and community-focused stories.
