Posted on Apr 2, 2023
Once a hub for touring performers from around the country, Kansas City has a long history with...
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Since Kansas City was established, drag in various forms has evolved from entertainment for power and control into a liberating art. Attempts to regulate the practice have also persisted.
Drag has been a form of entertainment in Kansas City for nearly 200 years, but it didn’t start out with the flamboyant performances drag queens are known for today.
Lawmakers attempting to regulate and ban the practice isn’t new either. States across the country, including Missouri, are experiencing a wave of legislation targeting drag performances, some of which would make it a misdemeanor for drag entertainers to perform in front of children.
“If people would study their history, they would realize that we had laws against this 150 years ago and they didn't really take, and they're not going to take again,” says Stuart Hinds, curator at the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America, which works to collect, preserve and share material that reflects the histories of the Kansas City region's LGBTQ+ communities.
Drag has been a form of entertainment in Kansas City for nearly 200 years, but it didn’t start out with the flamboyant performances drag queens are known for today.
Lawmakers attempting to regulate and ban the practice isn’t new either. States across the country, including Missouri, are experiencing a wave of legislation targeting drag performances, some of which would make it a misdemeanor for drag entertainers to perform in front of children.
“If people would study their history, they would realize that we had laws against this 150 years ago and they didn't really take, and they're not going to take again,” says Stuart Hinds, curator at the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America, which works to collect, preserve and share material that reflects the histories of the Kansas City region's LGBTQ+ communities.
Once a hub for touring performers from around the country, Kansas City has a long history with...
Posted from kcur.org
Kansas City
LGBTQ+
American History
Art
Posted 1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel good day Brother William, always informational and of the most interesting. Thanks for sharing, have a blessed day!
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Pageantry and philanthropy
When the first cases of AIDS in Kansas City were reported in 1982, the LGBTQ+ community turned to drag queens for help. They responded immediately, hosting benefits to raise money for the four local organizations providing help.
A drag troupe called The Kansas City Trollops formed in 1986 to perform comedy.
“They were just there to raise money, and what they ended up doing was raising spirits as well because it was a particularly dark time,” Hinds says.
Bars like the Cabaret became mainstays for local drag, and performers like Melinda Ryder and The Flo Show rose to prominence. With a comedic routine that featured exaggerated makeup and jokes, Flo was a captivating performer.
“The pageantry is really just expanding … it's just becoming this huge deal,” Hinds says. “There's a lot of that going on in clubs, but the need for fundraising around AIDS doesn't go away.”
In the mid-1990s, The Flo Show began giving all proceeds from a weekly show at the Cabaret to the Design Industry Foundation for Fighting AIDS. The show raised around $500,000 over the course of a decade.
“(She had) a working-class kind of maternal character: sassy and irreverent,” Hinds says. “Her shows were insanely popular. People are still very, very passionate about them today.”
Around the same time, a group called Late Night Theatre began performing routines of cultural milestones like “The Stepford Wives” or Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” in drag.
Both Flo and Late Night Theatre still perform.
Since Kansas City was established, drag in various forms has entertained and provided an outlet for self-expression.
Hinds says he doesn’t understand the current backlash against it, but he does see similarities between the way drag is treated now and how it was dealt with more than 160 years ago.
“There's this outrage, and arrests again of people on the street in the real world,” he says. “And that's kind of what we're seeing again now: If it's in the real world and my kids can get to it, it's really not OK. But we'll let it be OK on the stage where kids can't get to it.”
..."Pageantry and philanthropy
When the first cases of AIDS in Kansas City were reported in 1982, the LGBTQ+ community turned to drag queens for help. They responded immediately, hosting benefits to raise money for the four local organizations providing help.
A drag troupe called The Kansas City Trollops formed in 1986 to perform comedy.
“They were just there to raise money, and what they ended up doing was raising spirits as well because it was a particularly dark time,” Hinds says.
Bars like the Cabaret became mainstays for local drag, and performers like Melinda Ryder and The Flo Show rose to prominence. With a comedic routine that featured exaggerated makeup and jokes, Flo was a captivating performer.
“The pageantry is really just expanding … it's just becoming this huge deal,” Hinds says. “There's a lot of that going on in clubs, but the need for fundraising around AIDS doesn't go away.”
In the mid-1990s, The Flo Show began giving all proceeds from a weekly show at the Cabaret to the Design Industry Foundation for Fighting AIDS. The show raised around $500,000 over the course of a decade.
“(She had) a working-class kind of maternal character: sassy and irreverent,” Hinds says. “Her shows were insanely popular. People are still very, very passionate about them today.”
Around the same time, a group called Late Night Theatre began performing routines of cultural milestones like “The Stepford Wives” or Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” in drag.
Both Flo and Late Night Theatre still perform.
Since Kansas City was established, drag in various forms has entertained and provided an outlet for self-expression.
Hinds says he doesn’t understand the current backlash against it, but he does see similarities between the way drag is treated now and how it was dealt with more than 160 years ago.
“There's this outrage, and arrests again of people on the street in the real world,” he says. “And that's kind of what we're seeing again now: If it's in the real world and my kids can get to it, it's really not OK. But we'll let it be OK on the stage where kids can't get to it.”
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Good for the ADULTS that want to see the show in a private venue but it remains inappropriate in a public school.
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