As threats swell, Cincinnati’s drag performers push back

By ZACHARY JARRELL

CINCINNATI – In the crowded back room of Good Judy’s – an LGBTQ bar in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood –drag queen Stixen Stones appeared from behind a black curtain, dressed in transgender pride colors. Her outfit prominently displayed a message: “I am not a crime.” Stixen Stones, a 31-year-old transgender woman, then went to center stage, mouthing the words to a recording of Andrea Gibson’s poem “Your Life.”

With an intense stare and expressive motions, she descended a makeshift runway that split the crowd before returning to the stage. Her castmates piled in the narrow doorway that hid backstage to get a peek of the performance.

The crowd was silent as the speaker played: “They’re going to keep telling you/you are a crime of nature./And you’re going to look at all of your options/and choose conviction.”

And 2023 has been no exception.

The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking at least 430 anti-LGBTQ bills nationwide this year – ranging from transgender healthcare bans to limits on how LGBTQ issues can be discussed in schools, like in years past.

“It kind of puts us back in Stonewall territory,” Stixen Stones said.

This year has seen a sort of evolution in legislation targeting queer people, LGBTQ and legal experts said, with an influx of bills targeting drag performers as conservatives rail against drag story times – where drag artists read children’s books to kids. It’s a development that has heightened fears in the LGBTQ community, of which drag is an integral part.

“I think they’re using [anti-drag legislation] as a smokescreen, as a distraction to push something even more gruesome [anti-transgender legislation] that will literally impact lives,” said P.H. Dee, a 34-year-old drag queen in Cincinnati.

As more and more anti-LGBTQ bills are introduced, experts said, right-wing extremists have felt emboldened –increasingly targeting the LGBTQ community with hateful rhetoric and violent demonstrations.

“It’s hard to ignore,” said Vanta Black, a 23-year-old nonbinary drag performer in Cincinnati. “I feel like I would be ignorant to just be like, I’ll go play dress up and nobody’s going to be bothered by it.” tainly use more diversity, but I think we are a really creative and diverse group here in Cincinnati.”

Cincinnati, positioned in the southwest corner of Ohio, has taken big leaps in LGBTQ equality over the last decade, according to the Human Rights Campaign – the largest LGBTQ organization in the country. As has Covington, Kentucky, the Queen City’s neighbor on the other side of the Ohio River.

Since 2012, the HRC has released its Municipal Equality Index, which assigns scores – from zero to 100 – to cities based on how inclusive their laws, policies and services are.

In the report’s first year, the HRC gave Cincinnati a 77 –scoring particularly low, 0, in the “relationship recognition” category for lack of a domestic partner registry as samesex marriage was illegal on both a federal and state level. Columbus, for comparison, scored a 12 in the category that same year.

She added: “On any given night, no matter where you go, you’re gonna see a lot of different types of entertainers, depending on which bar you go, and I love that.”

Vanta Black, who is new to the city’s drag scene, shared a similar sentiment: “We just have a very unique drag scene. It’s very open. There are a lot of different places where people can find where they belong. It’s not just one type of drag that’s validated here.”

Still, the city’s – and country’s – progress is being overshadowed by the legislation aimed at LGBTQ people.

“It’s been 50 years [since Cincinnati Pride started], and things have progressed so much,” Hitch said. “But then these bills get introduced, and it feels like we’ve taken two steps forward and two steps back.”

‘It’s terrifying’

“That poem has always spoken to me – just the way that it describes trans joy,” Stixen Stones said in an interview after the show. “It gives me hope whenever I listen to it because it’s like, you really can have this really beautiful life that you get to choose, even though you’re gonna deal with some hardships.”

It was a chilly Saturday night last month, and Stixen Stones was co-hosting what she called a “trans trauma night” with fellow Good Judy’s performer Kiara Chimera – a night that put the political landscape for queer people at center stage.

In recent years, state legislatures across the country – including in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana (parts of each state make up the Cincinnati metropolitan area) – have filed, advanced and, in some cases, passed legislation targeting LGBTQ people, namely transgender youth.

However, it wouldn’t be long until Cincinnati received perfect 100s from the HRC, 2015 being the first year the city did so – and it has continued the streak ever since.

Covington, on the other hand, was added to the list in 2015 – coming in with a 57 overall score. It took the Northern Kentucky city longer to climb up to a perfect score, achieving it in 2020 and again in 2022.

“Cincinnati, it’s come a long way in the last 10, 15 years, and it’s definitely more progressive than it was,” said Jake Hitch, director of communication for Cincinnati Pride. “I think we still have some room to grow, but it’s definitely progressed.”

Cincinnati’s drag scene has also seen a similar evolution, Stixen Stones, who describes her drag as alternative, said.

“It’s definitely changed a lot,” she said, adding: “I think we’re really seeing a lot of diversity – I mean, we can cer-

In early March, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, signed the nation’s first bill restricting drag shows. The signing came after a 1977 high school yearbook photo appearing to show Lee in drag surfaced online – the governor called a reporter’s question about the photo “ridiculous.”

The legislation, which was set to go into effect on April 1 before a federal judge placed a temporary hold on it, bans “adult cabaret entertainment” – including “male or female impersonators” – from public property or in locations where minors can view it. The original bill was amended to define adult cabaret entertainment as “adult-oriented performances that are harmful to minors, as such term is defined under present law.”

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