Photo:Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
Santiago Felipe/Getty Images
RuPaul’s Drag Racestar BenDeLaCreme, 41, is speaking up about the political attacks on the drag community.
As anti-LGBTQ+ laws sweep the nation, drag performers like BenDeLaCreme — whose off-stage name is Benjamin Putnam — are at the center of the discourse. Conservative lawmakers have attempted to paint all drag as unfit for family-friendly events, including Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis, who described a recent bill he signed as legislation that would “protect children from sexually explicit adult performances in all venues — including drag shows and strip clubs.”
In a recent episode of the iHeartPodcast showHello Isaac, Putnam commented on the conservative rhetoric, revealing the discrepancy between the way people treat celebrated comedians likeEddie Murphy— who has performed sexually explicit sets and also acted in children’s movies — and drag queens.
“We understand that Eddie Murphy can doRawand then he can doDaddy Day Careand we aren’t afraid that he’s gonna tell one of those jokes to these children in the audience," he said to host Isaac Mizrahi. “And it just feels like such an obvious comparison that it is wild to me that all these people assume that, because we sometimes have an adult sensibility in front of other adults, that we are not capable of adjusting.”
White nationalist groups protest a Drag Story Hour event in Montana.William Campbell/Getty
William Campbell/Getty
Putnam, who competed as BenDeLaCreme on the sixth season ofRuPaul’s Drag Raceand the third season ofRuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars, said he thinks the anti-LGBTQ+ incursions are a political ploy to distract the public.
The American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking nearly 500 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S., many of which would ban or censor performances like drag shows. The bills advance in state legislatures as LGBTQ+ people face rising threats to their safety and right-wing groups continue to protest family-friendly activities like drag queen story hours.
Read about where each state stands on anti-drag legislationhere.
source: people.com
