Draft:Trans drag queens

A trans drag queen is a drag performer who does not self-identify as cisgender while out of drag. While in drag, trans drag queens often appear in a way which indicates femininity or "hyper-femininity".

Black trans drag queen Crystal Labeija was the founder of the House of Labeija, one of the first ballroom houses which allowed trans women to use drag as a way to make a living and a reputation for oneself.

Miss Continental Winner and RuPaul's Drag Race Season 15 Winner Sasha Colby, an openly trans drag queen who advocates for trans rights, describes her drag persona has something she has to turn on and off. While out of drag, Colby strives to be a powerful woman who has a sense of vulnerability which can often be missed while performing in drag. Unlike her drag persona, Colby's identity as a women is something that doesn't have to be turned on or off but instead is a part in her own self identity.

Ballroom Culture
Development of trans subcultures and drag subcultures as two separate ideas can be traced back to the Stonewall Riots of 1969. the formal creation of houses beginning in the 1970's, with large cities such as Detroit and New York City (Harlem) serving as birth places for ballroom cultures. Houses and ballroom culture were created to serve as safe havens for Black and/or Latinx LGBTQ+ individuals who felt unwelcome within heterosexual and white homosexual communities, while also allowing for social progression and recognition within the social hierarchy of ballroom. In opposition to the preinstalled ideals on which ballroom culture was built upon, problems revolving around transphobia and racism remained evident throughout scholarly critique. In particular, it is argued that the feminity which is being exemplified is based on what it means to be a woman in white, middle/upper-class America, suggesting that this is the most ideal woman.

Trans women who compete in balls are typically referred to as femme queens, which in particular are transgender women who are at any stage of gender reassignment (including but not limited to hormonal and/or surgical changes). Evolving terms of femme queens do not constrict trans women as those whom have gone through a biological change, but rather those who were not born as a woman but now identify as one regardless of their physiological state. Ideas of gender in ballroom culture are fluid and ever-changing, reflecting the idea of gender being a performative act. Many femme queens haved noted feeling unsafe in the "real world", with some scared to go outside during the day since they don't identify with the standards set my the heterosexual normative.

Controversy
In a 2018 interview with The Guardian following the participation of openly trans contestant Peppermint on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 9, RuPaul commented on the inclusion of trans queens on RuPaul's Drag Race. In this, he stated that whilst most queens get some form of cosmetic surgery in order to enhance their features while in drag, major surgeries such as breast implants may give gender transitioning queens an unfair advantage. Following this interview, RuPaul faced major backlash from fans which resulted in the inclusion of trans queens in later seasons of the show.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
Bernadette, played by Terrence Stamp, is a transsexual drag queen who, unlike the other drag queens in the film, has to combat with the ideas of femininity whilst out of drag. Within the film, Bernadette recollects on the time when she was kicked out of her childhood home for going through with her sex change. On top of forming the ideas of camp within the film which exemplify the art of drag, Bernadette has the obligation of forming the structure of what it means to be a trans woman within the scope of drag, and in the end of the film chooses to place her gender identity over her passion for drag by staying behind to pursue a love interest which was based on her as a person rather than the fetishization of her trans identity.

To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (1995)
Though all drag queens in this film proclaim to be cisgender, the three main characters (Vida, Noxeema, and Chi-Chi) use their drag in throughout the film in a way which transcends gender and serves as a radical feminist movement which reinvents what it is to be a woman. Within the film, Noxeema explains to Chi-Chi the difference between being trans and being a drag queen:"'When a straight man puts on a dress and gets sexual kicks, he is a transvestite. When a man is a woman trapped in a man's body and has an operation, he is a transsexual. When a gay man has way too much fashion sense for one gender, he is a drag queen. And when a tired like Puerto Rican boy puts on a dress, he is a boy in a dress.'"To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar serves as a conjunction which looks at the evolution and inclusivity of drag and gender, with modern terminology no longer isolating trans as only somebody who goes through a sexual operation but rather as somebody who doesn't conform to the ideals of their gender assigned at birth.