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When Lydia talks about her inspiration, there's an air of vulnerability that we don't often associate with drag— something she says plays a massive role. I've been watching Drag Race religiously for a long time, and I reckon Lydia's right. One queen, Detox, reveals on stage that she was in a horrific car accident, having found her ex-boyfriend dead at her apartment. In a reading task (the girls rip each other to shreds, often holding a puppet), one says, "It's illegal to have sex with Detox, because the majority of her is under 18 years old." In the same season, a trans woman beautifully makes her transition public. There are those whose parents disowned them, the ones who ran away to New York as teens, and haven't spoken to their families since. She's not the only queen to say the drag persona is a way of dealing with personal trauma.
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For many who seek out the drag community, it's in search of an extended family, a sense of belonging with other "others." For many of the guys I speak to, the drag community is a family for self-described misfits in a society where we don't all quite yet have the equality, acceptance, love, and protection that our hetero counterparts take for granted. "I like to think we are all playing a part in forming a community of artists that care for and lift one another—something that is really needed among queer communities," says Cheddar, who considers herself as an aunt to many, and "mamma" to two. "So much of the gay scene is orientated around drinking, drugs, and sex. I think the importance of looking after one another has been a little lost in the contemporary, commercially-focused gay village."By rejecting the distinction of dressing like a boy or girl, you are fighting one of the most profoundly violent things in modern human history: the social distinction between men and women.
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