Not Everyone's Cuppa

"Drag artists reach across the political spectrum. We see drag artists and trans communities under attack by cynical and power-hungry politicians, so we're responding with a positive, uplifting campaign."

"A lot of trans voters are disillusioned. It's hard to maintain hope when your rights are under attack. This is our chance to make our voices heard and to show whoever forms the government next that homophobia and transphobia is politically poisonous and we will organize and fight any regression on the rights, freedoms and equality of our communities."

"I don't need people to understand the whole trans thing. I need them to understand that putting politicians in the exam room with a family doctor is dangerous."

Fae Johnstone, executive director, Momentum 

"As queer people, we get to choose our family, and we also get to choose our elected representatives in Parliament."

"Election turnout in this country is consistently low. Did Not Vote would be the ruling party in every election if that group of folks did and was able to participate."

"Shame is not a useful tactic. Shame just shuts people down and leads to them actually doing less. We want it to be something that is fun."

"Any attack on drag is just a proxy attack on the trans community. The job of the drag artist is to be the biggest, sparkliest, gayest, queerest creature in the room. And, by doing so, make everyone else a little bit safer."

"When personal freedoms are removed from some people, it's often just a mater of who is next."

"We are hoping to reach absolutely everyone. Whether you care about us because you're part of the community, because you're an ally, or because you enjoy the art we create ... Please, protect us in the voting booth."

Drag King Cyril Cinder 

Pride Parade in Toronto, Ontario, June 25, 2017.  Getty

Peoples' intimate lives, their sexual orientation, their preferences, their lifestyles are really very private matters. And privacy protects us all. It's when we believe as individuals and as groups that our lives should be on public display for the admiration of others and the affirmation of our eccentric, non-mainstream choices that belie the mainstream social contract of civility and respect for others' sensibilities that there is pushback by greater society. No one appreciates being subtly or outwardly pushed into agreeableness with social mores they are disinterested in and which may in fact, offend them.

 

And although most reasonable people tend to agree that others should be left to their devices as long as other people are not disturbed by performances they find distasteful, outright in-your-face defiance and belittling of traditional conservative social values can be unhelpful. Most people are tolerant of differences between us all in society; we are all, after all, individuals. Our backgrounds may be dissimilar, our familial histories varied, our exposure to world events bearing little resemblance one to another. Cultural, historical values express safety in what is recognized as mainstream.

 

Why should anyone care whether others' lifestyles are gay, lesbian, or any other non-conforming biological expression on the ferris-wheel of life? Tolerance, disinterest, indifference are natural components of healthy minds accepting of differences. On the other hand, when those differences are viewed as profoundly in excess in the exuberance of their performative acts which may find disfavour by a majority in a social stream, it becomes insulting to insist that outbursts of pride in the spectrum of gender expression be shared by others.

 

 

Worse, when trans people on insisting on their right to express a gender other than that of their birth, trampling on the rights of ordinary people who have never experienced gender confusion, by demanding recognition, one can only shrug and decry poor social manners. It is no one's business other than your own and there it should be kept. Until gender diversity knocks at the door of others' rights to be respected for who and what they are. Trans women taking part in female sports is one such insulting instance of demeaning the rights of others.

 

The phenomenon of gender uncertainty is not mainstream; it represents a vanishingly small proportion of any society. Activists demanding special entitlements and recognition beyond that given to any other member of society must surely realize they do themselves harm by their reckless demands. Be yourself, be whatever it is that satisfies yourself, but keep it to yourself; no one else is particularly interested. Insisting that children uncertain of their gender identities be permitted unrestricted use of hormone blockers and therapy, including irreversible surgery is in actuality a human rights offence.

 

That the drag community plans a 'get-out-the-vote' focus to help the average voter realize the vital importance of civic engagement in casting a vote in the upcoming general election on April 28, cannot be faulted, since their view is non-partisan. They encourage voters to think of issues that affect their communities. All to the good.  They are also promoting a kinder general approach to issues closer to their hearts, in slogans such as "Drag isn't dangerous". But it should be a matter of choice; whether the drag performance speaks to people's values.

 

Heath V. Salazar, who performs as drag persona Gay Jesus, is a Latinx writer and performer living in Toronto.  Salazar