I would say that transgender rights are behind lesbian and gay rights specifically because lesbian and gay people have a long, long history of throwing transgender people under the bus (and being pretty crappy to bisexuals too).

If you go back and look at the Stonewall Riots and the way it was perceived by mostly white cis gay men, they were ashamed of it. The Stonewall Riots happened because homeless street kids and a large portion of transgender and gender non-conforming people fought the police. The Village Voice described it as “the forces of faggotry”.

Then after, transgender people were sometimes banned from Pride parades. Look at the way Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson are not celebrated despite being part of those who started the riots.

In almost every social movement you will find individuals who want to assumilate. James Baldwin spoke brilliantly about how what white gay men were upset about wasn’t that they were discriminated against for being gay, but that their gayness didn’t allow them the privileges that would normally have been afforded to them as white gay men.

And still even now within the left you will find individuals who are not interested in doing anything but assimilating to acheive the privileges they would normally have. Usually these are white, wealthy people. And usually they have a problem with “campness”, gender non-conformity and anything else that sticks out because they want to be “accepted” in so much as they don’t want their gayness to take away their privileges.

In terms of drag queens and transgender people, I’d say that I am not a trans woman. The relationship between drag queens and trans women is a complex one. It’s not something I feel comfortable putting a judgement on not being a trans woman affected by it. And I would say that the only opinion about what drag means in relationship to trans women that we should focus on are the opinions of trans women. That said, I still reserve the right to criticise drag acts the perpetuate racism and misogyny — which many do.

At the end of the day, gender non-conforming feminine presenting people, whether they be trans women, non-binary people or just cis men who want to express femininity and have every right to, are the people who get targeted for violence. And it’s wrong.

And what it stems from is a hatred of femininity. Why are women who dress masculine not targeted and killed in the same volume as trans women or transfeminine people? It’s because femininity is something to be ashamed of. We mock cis women for their femininity. A love for bacon, for example, is culturally embraced because it’s masculineised, whereas a love for pumpkin spice lattes is mocked.

I see cis people blaming their ignorance of trans people on drag queens as a ridiculous excuse. Because point blank, even if someone is a drag queen and not a transgender person they do not deserve violence or mockery. And I think that with or without drag, cis people have taken it upon themselves to mock trans women all on their own through media.

Things like Ace Ventura, jokes about men in dresses, trans prostitutes — none of this is about drag queens. None of this is targeted to drag queens specifically. Drag queens may well become targets because they are read in this society as a man in a dress (and many drag queens will say that’s what they are), but I absolutely categorically refuse to blame drag queens for cis people’s ignorance.

Especially given the history of drag and the ball scene in New York and how it was largely about marginalised LGBT people (read: POCs, poor folks, homeless folks) expressing themselves in an accepted environment. Especially given how white people took drag and made it different. Especially given how now everyone’s walking around going, “THE SHAAAADE” but have no idea who the hell Sylvia and Marsha or even CeCe McDonald are.

So yeah, that’s how I feel about it. As someone who doesn’t experience transmisogyny, I can’t sit here and talk about whether drag is harmful to trans women from any personal experience. But I can say that I am not going to be trying to blame drag for the treatment of trans women because that’s letting way to many cis people who don’t even know what drag is off the hook.