CNN
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The stage was set at Le Poisson Rouge, a nightclub in New York City, as part of the monthly “Nightgowns” drag showcase run by performer and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” winner Sasha Velour. After a short montage of news clips discussing the many controversies surrounding him, the embattled New York Rep. George Santos made his entrance. Sort of. Rather, the Los Angeles-based drag queen Meatball made her entrance, dressed as Santos.
Performing a camp classic from the film, “The Greatest Showman,” she transformed from Santos’ slacks-and-sweater Congress attire (in drag, this is known as a “reveal”) into a replica of the sparkling red gown he’d worn during his own dabbles with drag as a young man in Rio de Janeiro, replete with the feather boa and cheap wig.
That was perhaps the toughest part, Meatball explained in an interview with CNN Opinion, because after all, “a drag queen’s worst nightmare is a flat wig.”
Beyond the emotive lip-sync — which yielded an incredible response from the audience, and has since gone viral across social media — Meatball’s act hit all-too-neatly at the intersection of a number of current “culture wars.” The borderline-campy spectacle that surrounds Santos, yes, but also the politics; specifically the fear-mongering and rhetoric targeting LGBTQ people and communities which has, in recent years in particular, led to a drastic rise in anti-trans and anti-drag legislation. Last week, Tennessee became the first US state (though almost certainly not the last) to restrict drag shows and performances.
“The current climate’s a mess,” Meatball told me in a discussion over the state of drag in this moment. “I just don’t understand what drag has to do with any of this… In the last few weeks, I’ve seen (reports of) people arrested for assaulting children; not a single one of them was a drag queen. They were preachers and teachers and youth leaders. Why are you so obsessed with trans people and drag people? The problem is at your door. This is something that, in the last few years, has been turned into an issue that never existed. It’s never been with us.”
This interview has been edited and condensed.
CNN: When was the first time you encountered drag, or felt the urge to perform?
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