In my home state (Alabama)....there was a funny turn of events this week.
For over 200 years, the state had never seen a need to regulate drag shows. They had regulated just about every 'arousal' show that had ever been introduced around the state, and decided this week...that things needed to be made clear on drag hows.
The new law basically says....you won't have a drag show in a library, a school or in the presence of school-age kids. Anywhere else? Appears ok....if you wanted to do it at a gas station, cattle-sales barn, stripper bar....not a problem.
I sat and pondered over this. In 1977 when I graduated high school, if you'd brought up drag shows....most folks would have thought you meant 'tractor-pulls', then you would have corrected them.
Then they would have responded that yeah, they'd been at comedy shows (like the Grand Ole Oprey (GOO) type)....where men dressed up as ugly women. In this case....you would have correct them again....saying it wasn't a ugly woman contest....but the 'OTHER' type.
In the whole state in 1977....I doubt if there was a single club that featured drag shows. I might go as far as suggesting that drag shows probably didn't start to be a thing until after 2000.
Today? Far as I know....there's just one single place in the state which is a authentic drag show club, and it's in Birmingham. That's it.
Again, I go back to the GOO-mentality...I'd suggest that still today (2023)....a quarter of the population thinks what you are talking about is a ugly women contest with guys participating in comedy.
Did we need some law? It's hard to say....but suggesting that some drag-queen show was open to 8-year old kids, why wouldn't the same 8-year old kids get a right to see a authentic topless stripper show (my humble opinion)?
It just seems like we are on some path where 'shock-values' are seeing how far things can go....before just about anything is accepted....even a 12-year old marrying another 12-year old.
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