Drag Queen

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"Did you hear about the Scottish drag queen? He wore pants."

— Lynn Lavner, comedian

Drag queens are performers who dress as oft-exaggerated caricatures of gender to entertain. While the archetypal drag queen is a cisgender man dressing as a woman, they can just as easily be transgender, non-binary, cisgender women (in male or female drag), etc. Unlike Transgender women and Crossdressers, men who are drag queens wear women's clothing only on special occasions. They are usually Camp Gay men who sometimes like to get that little bit more flamboyant by dressing up as a tornado that's just rushed through a mountain of candyfloss and glitter. They can get dolled up for a variety of reasons: paid entertainers, runway models, cosplayers, etc. Many a Gay Bar features drag queens as regular performers, and a select few have gone on to mainstream success as well.

Drag queens on TV are usually sharp-tongued and witty, matching the stage personas of real-life professional stage performers. When they're not the main character themselves, they may provide the hero with world-weary advice or help put forward a "just be yourself" Aesop.

Many cultures around the globe have a theatre tradition of crossdressing, such as the UK's pantomime dames, Japan's onnagata, and Western comedians with a female persona like Barry Humphries (Dame Edna) and Tyler Perry (Madea). However, these are usually heterosexual men performing for general audiences, whereas drag is specific to LGBT+ culture. Drag artists primarily perform at gay bars, Pride festivals, and other queer-centric events, and many take part in community activism outside of performing.

Note that it's not universal for a drag queen to be campy and larger than life. In general, they can be divided into at least three broad categories:

Camp Queens are your stereotypical caricatures of female fashion. This is where you get the Uncanny Valley Makeup, outrageous costumes, etc. Their performances tend to be more comedic. Cisgender women who perform as drag queens tend to fall under this category.
Fishy Queens, also known as "Female Illusionists," are much more subdued in presentation and tend to be more serious, and are so named because of their ability to pass as a cisgender woman (aka "serving up fish"). Fishy queens often compete in drag pageants, model high fashion, and/or work as celebrity impersonators. As for the fish metaphor...we'll let you figure that out for yourself. The term itself is becoming something of a discredited descriptor in recent years, but the idea of super-feminine drag remains a major faction.
Genderfuck Queens blend masculine and feminine elements to completely fuck what we know as gender. Beards, body hair, baldness, toplessness, masculine attire with feminine makeup, and so on. Avant-garde fashion and androgyny are their game.

In some quarters, drag queens are subject to controversy; for example, conservative Moral Guardians frequently dislike the emerging phenomenon of Drag Queen Story Hour, events at which drag queens entertain small children. Other criticisms come from feminists, who sometimes believe men performing as drag queens is demeaning to women — that what it means is for male entertainers to "put on dresses, make up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.)," to quote lesbian activist Mary Cheney. The counterargument is that drag queens really subvert and deconstruct gender norms by making fun of traditional femininity, thus helping to free both men and women from stereotypical expectations. RuPaul, for instance, has said that he should not be assumed to be trying to emulate an actual woman, as scant few actual women routinely dress like drag queens (i.e. huge wigs, garish makeup, outrageous outfits, impractically high heels, etc.).

The Distaff (ahem) Counterpart is the Drag King — most often a woman, usually a Butch Lesbian, performing masculinity with levels of exaggeration similar to a Drag Queen. They'll bind their breasts (if necessary), pencil in or glue on a beard, and either keep their hair short or cover it under a hat. And then stuff a sock in their pants. Kings tend go for a dapper, thuggish, cowboy, or rocker persona.

Some drag performers also happen to be transgender, but one doesn't indicate the other. Those who are will still ham it up in their performances. As RuPaul's Drag Race contestant Monica Beverly Hillz put it, "Trans is who I am, drag is what I do."

Drag queens with their own pages

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Grell Sutcliffe in Black Butler has some of the traits of one, but is ultimately a subversion; that's what she's actually like.
The Arrancar Charlotte Chuhlhourne of Bleach, who faces off against resident pretty boy Shinigami Yumichika Ayasegawa. He also cranks the drag factor up to eleven with eye-searing results.◊ He fires heart-shaped Ceros.
City Hunter: A recurring character and owner of a gay pub is one and employs others. He often tries and fail to seduce straight men, including main character Ryo (who is the one who won't run, as they're friends).
Gintama: There is an okama bar in the Kabuki District called Kamakko Club, owned and operated by "Mademoiselle" Saigou, who decided to become a crossdresser after the death of his wife in order for his son to have a maternal figure in his life. Saigou himself is fiercely protective of his fellow okama, and will beat up anyone who insults them. At one point he forces Gintoki and Katsura to work for him after they incur his wrath.
One of the episodes of Michiko & Hatchin has the two meeting a man who has an acting career dressing as women (though in a normal style, instead of campy and exaggerated). His son crossdresses 24/7 in hopes that he can be a good actor like his dad when he grows up.
One Piece:
- Mr. 2 Bon Clay of Baroque Works is a drag queen. He wears a ballerina outfit, doesn't have a female partner, and for Pete's sake, his style of karate is Okama Kenpo, which translates as Crossdresser Fist! Interestingly, he eventually proves himself to be roughly the manliest badass in the series.
- There's also the Kamabakka Kingdom (which translates almost literally as filled with okama), where everyone has the heart of a maiden. Much to his despair Sanji lands here.
- Also, in the secret 5.5th level of Impel Down, former "Queen" of the Kamabakka Kingdom Emporio Ivankov has created the New Kama Kingdom, filled with even more okama (including himself). Thanks to Ivankov's Devil Fruit ability, some of them have switched genders so many times they've forgotten who they used to be originally.
Ouran High School Host Club:
- Haruhi's father Ryuuji works at a crossdresser bar, and is absolutely fabulous. Since his daughter also dresses up as a boy, one wonders if it's hereditary. He prefers to be called "Ranka", although he doesn't always crossdress.
- In another episode, the Host Club themselves dress in drag, in an attempt to keep Haruhi from transferring to the Lobelia Academy.
In Pet Shop of Horrors, all of Count D's animals can be seen in human-like forms by their owners or by special people. The peacocks look like drag queens.

Comic Books

Jesús from Circles.
Shade from Marvel, described in PR as the first drag queen superhero.

Fan Works

In The Love Club, Crope and his boyfriend Tibbett are two fashionable Camp Gay men who do drag at a gay bar on the weekends.
According to a prequel side story in Bucky Barnes Gets His Groove Back & Other International Incidents, Steve Rogers had a drag phase back in the thirties that seems to have involved him wearing lipstick. (It comes up when Peggy Carter's putting lipstick on Bucky, only she's combining it with knife-play as well.) This isn't too out there, actually- the particular neighborhood where Steve grew up in the comic canon, was, in real life, a major Gayborhood back during their time, complete with illegal drag shows. (Or drag balls, as they were known at the time.) This gets a Call-Back of sorts when Steve mentions in If They Haven't Learned Your Name that once, a bunch of bored USO showgirls twisted his arm into letting them try their makeup on him.
Oh, god. This is Steve’s drag ball phase all over again, except this time it’s Carter and she’s got a knife. [Bucky] doesn’t know if it’s better or worse with the knife.

Film — Live-Action

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert has Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Terence Stamp as a trio of drag queens traveling through Australia. However, Stamp's character is a transgender woman, not a gay man.
All About E: The club where E works has several, and she's friends with them, defending two from being harassed by some homophobic straight men.
The comic response to the above, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, starring Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo. Leguizamo is a comedy actor, but the other two are Playing Against Type so hard that it makes their roles so much funnier. Also, the drag queen background characters in the two pageant scenes are played by actual drag queens, including Lady Bunny, Coco Peru, and obviously RuPaul.
Captain Shakespeare in the film version of Stardust.
The role of Edna Turnblad in Hairspray has traditionally been played by a man. The original 80's film had Divine (Actor) play the part, the stage musical's original cast had Harvey Fierstein, and the 2007 film has John Travolta.^note Divine was a regular in the works of John Waters until his death.
Lola and the Angel Boys in Kinky Boots.
Albert in The Birdcage. Albert is not the only one; by the end of the movie, most of the main characters are dressed up as drag queens.
- And in the film it's based on, Albin in La Cage aux folles.
The Lady Chablis in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, notable in that the movie is based on a real murder case and Chablis plays herself.
The title characters' friends in ''Connie and Carla." They eponymous girls themselves are more like Sweet Polly Olivers...kinda.
Hana from Tokyo Godfathers was a successful drag performer in the backstory, and is still dressed as a woman living on the streets. In the subtitles, teen Miyuki calls her "Uncle Bag"; in the original Japanese it's "okamasan," a clever portmanteau of okaasan, "auntie/older woman," and okama, "effeminate gay man."
Feodor Basmanov in Ivan the Terrible, doubling up as a Creepy Crossdresser.
The titular character of "Crocodile" Dundee almost falls for one of these, until informed that the "girl" he was chatting up was really a guy.
Harold Perrineau (Michael "WAAAAAALT!" Dawson) dressed in drag for his roles in Romeo + Juliet and Woman on Top.
The Curiosity of Chance has a group of catty drag queens that arouse the interest of the main character and awaken his inner queen. Perhaps more ostentatious than them though is how everyone in the movie fawns over them like a fourth of July parade.
In Bent, the cabaret featured a crossdresser (played by Mick Jagger!), who ends up abandoning his lifestyle to run away and lie low from the Gestapo.
Both Nick and Jane and Trick, among others, feature sizable supporting roles for a catty drag character named Miss Coco Peru, played by Clinton Leupp.
Moulin Rouge! features Toulouse Latrec (unconvincingly) and a straighter example in Chocolat, one of the Moulin's dancers.
Ignacio/Zahara in Bad Education (2004). His/her drag performance features this dress.
In Victor/Victoria, Julie Andrews plays a woman who dresses as a man who dresses as a woman, making her a recursive drag king/queen.
A group of them appear in Last Vegas and show up for the bachelor party.
Flawless (1999) features a drag queen named Rusty who sees himself as more of an artist than a drag queen.
Cabaret: "Even ze orchestra...is beautiful."
In Dumplin', while going through her Aunt Lucy's old things, Willowdean finds a flyer for a bar that does a performance of Dolly Parton's music every week. Being a fangirl of Parton, partially thanks to Aunt Lucy, Willowdean takes two of her friends and goes to the bar... and they find out that it's a gay bar, and all the performers are drag queens. The girls end up having a great time, and the bartender introduces Willowdean to one of the queens after the show, since he was a close friend of Lucy's. The queens wind up helping the girls with the beauty pageant they've entered, such as teaching them some dance moves and fixing their hair and makeup for them. (Amusingly, when Millie's deeply religious mother asks who did such a nice job with her makeup, Millie just says, "...I'll explain later." Then Millie's mother ends up sitting next to the queens in the audience, much to their collective horror.)
Better Than Chocolate: Resoundingly deconstructed: Judy has a song about how she isn't one. She's a trans woman, but has clearly been mistaken for a drag queen frequently, to her annoyance.
Femme (2023): Jules is a cis gay man who's also a drag queen, performing under the name Aphrodite Banks. He's the victim of a Homophobic Hate Crime while in drag.

Literature

In Disappearing Nightly, one of the performers whose assistant vanished is a drag queen of the Fishy Queen type. As some of the male protagonists are Really 700 Years Old, they get a crush on the man before realizing he's a he. The lead character, Esther, meanwhile privately laments over the fact "she" is better at looking good than her... then again Esther is a low-payed actress going through a lot of stress and adventure due to finding out about magic so doesn't have time to make herself look good.
In the Discworld novel The Last Continent, Rincewind's wanderings across FourEcks lead him to the Galah, an obvious parade for homosexuals. He finds that his Luggage has been adopted by a troupe of drag queens (one of whom is actually a woman) but never clues in that most of the sequins, makeup, and high heels are being worn by men. For one thing, he's a wizard, and most of his experience with women is when they're trying to convince him to do something dangerous. For another, he's from Ankh-Morpork, where a lot of women get in fistfights. And win.
- In Unseen Academicals, Madame Sharn invokes this image, but due to the Ambiguous Gender of Discworld dwarfs, may actually be biologically female. She certainly identifies as female.
In The Boy Who Followed Ripley, Tom Ripley (best known from The Talented Mr. Ripley) decides that the best way to rescue a friend from kidnappers is to disguise himself. In drag. He showed a knack for disguises in previous stories, but he seems incredibly amused to try drag for the first time. (He's not really gay. Or is he?)
Adrian in Cherie Priest's Bloodshot is a drag queen with the stage name Sister Rose. He also happens to be an ex-Navy Seal. The main character talks about how attractive he is in and out of drag.
The noir/crime anthology Drag Noir edited by KA Laity features numerous characters in drag, and deconstructs both noir and drag as subject matter.
The Giddy Death of the Gays and the Strange Demise of Straights by Redfern Jon Barrett has the drag queen 'High Hopes', who teaches Rutti how to do drag.
In Too Bright to See, Bug's late uncle Roderick was a drag queen who went by Anita Life.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club: Theresa Scafani, better known as Tommy Andrews, is a male impersonator who does a lounge act at the Telegraph Club.
Zenobia July has Phil and Lucy's friend Sprink, short for Sprinkles La Fontaine. Phil and Lucy weren't very good at helping Zen buy girl clothes for herself, so a few weeks into the school year, Sprink takes Zen shopping and helps her pick out two weeks' worth of outfits she likes.

Live-Action TV

One episode of Absolutely Fabulous had a drag queen friend of a pimp tag along for a while (Liza Minnelli references included).
Accused (2023): In "Robyn's Story" Robyn performs drag acts quite often, with many fellow drag queens shown too.
Babylon Berlin: Svetlana Sorokina performs as a Drag King singer at the Mokka Efti nightclub under the pseudonym of "Nikoros". The song written for her main performance scene, "Zu Asche, Zu Staub", is the show's end credits music for most episodes of the first two seasons.
In an episode of Bones, the victim turns out to have been a drag queen performing at a club called Madame's Apple. The proprietor clarifies that the victim was straight, but the distinction isn't made for any of the other performers.
Bramwell featured an episode about a 1890s transvestite Hackett, implied to be a performer and openly stated to be a male prostitute involved with sailors.
The US version of the game show Dog Eat Dog featured a challenge involving drag queens and the invariably male contestant attempting to guess who wasn't in drag.
The Boulet Brothers' Dragula is a reality competition show not unlike RuPaul's Drag Race but it champions alternative drag performers who deal in the grotesque, horrifying, or just downright disgusting.
In common with just about every other British comedian of the day, Dick Emery's gallery of comic grotesques included two drag roles: "Hetty", the repressed spinster, and "Mandy", the easy-to-offend glamour girl. Mandy was an updated version of a drag act Emery played as part of a forces' entertainment troupe in WW2 — "Vera", an over-the-top glam blonde who was a parody of Forces' sweetheart Vera Lynn.
Equal: Many are featured, including with a gay ball staged in 1965. Harry Hay says in the 1920s being feminine, including by doing drag, was more common in gay circles than not.
The Fabulous Show with Fay & Fluffy is hosted by the titular duo, who are both drag queens who entertain and educate kids.
Fellow Travelers: Frankie is a drag queen in the 1950s, but stops performing by the late '60s. Real life drag king Stormé De Larverie is a minor character and Frankie's friend at the time.
Hammer House of Horror: Tadek in the episode "The Carpathian Eagle".
Hightown: As Provincetown is a Gayborhood drag queens are frequently shown on the city streets. Jackie runs into some in the Season 3 premiere.
Interview with the Vampire (2022): For the Krewe of Raj float during the Mardi Gras festivity, Lestat de Lioncourt is dolled up as Marie-Antoinette (so he's a French drag queen who is costumed as a French queen), complete with makeup, wig, sparkly tiara and necklace, a giant bedazzled frilled collar, Fluffy Fashion Feathers, a fur-trimmed cape, High-Class Gloves, a gown and a corset (which is worn backwards for some reason).
Kim's Convenience: A drag queen named Therese visits the titular convenience store during Gay Pride Week and is offered the "gay discount" from Mr. Kim (who thinks Therese is a transwoman and that Trans Equals Gay). Mr. Kim is confused by the concept of drag queens but is sincere when he asks Therese about it and wholeheartedly accepts his answer. Mr. Kim still offers him the discount, which Therese scoffs at but accepts anyways.
Mr. Kim: Oh, you is man who dress like girl?
Therese: A woman. Yeah. Why?
Mr. Kim: Why you do like this?
Therese: Oh, um, I don't know. It feels like me. Feels like home. Always has.
In the Law & Order episode "Deceit", Briscoe and Curtis are surprised when a female impersonator witness meets them in regular male clothes. He tells them, "I dress up for work just like you do."
Sunset Boulevard of The L Word was a rare straight example of a drag queen.
Parodied in Metrosexuality where the Local Hangout's bouncer is a tall, imposing and massively built Scary Black Man (DeObia Oparei) who speaks in a very deep baritone register, despite wearing incredibly flashy colours and feathers.
Most of the female characters in Monty Python's Flying Circus are played by the regular male performers made up in drag, but not strictly Drag Queens since the characters are just meant to be ordinary women. However, once this is established, it is Zig-Zagged like everything else. In the "Ethel the Frog" sketch, we see an interview about the London gangster Dinsdale Piranha with who appears to be his girlfriend, John Cleese in Incredibly Conspicuous Drag. Just when you think he is playing a regular female role, the interview concludes:
"Dinsdale was a gentleman. And what's more, he knew how to treat a female impersonator."
One skit of Morecambe and Wise (in the 1975 Christmas Episode) involved Eric and Ernie dressed up as background dancers for Big Spender.
My Life Is Murder: In "All That Glitters", Alexa's personal and professional lives collide when she investigates the death of a drag queen whose career was on the rise.
Noah's Arc: Alex, with Noah, Ricky and Chance as drag backup singers in one episode.
Project Runway US had a challenge to design an outfit for drag queens. Most of them had Punny Names like "Hedda Lettuce" and "Anita Greencard".
RuPaul's Drag Race, hosted by the most famous drag queen in the world, has been credited with bringing drag performance out of the clubs and into the mainstream. Many queens who appear on the show go on to to have successful performing careers even if they didn't come close to winning their season. Even here on TV Tropes, it's no coincidence that the majority of queens with their own pages are former contestants.
In one episode of Teen Wolf, Scott and Stiles follow the kanima into a gay club, and Stiles is immediately surrounded by a group of drag queens. Three episodes later, he has apparently become friends with them and invites them to Lydia's birthday party.
Season 3 of GLOW (2017) introduces Bobby Barnes who does drag at the same casino the wrestling show takes residence at, and forms an Odd Friendship with Sheila.

Music

The Music Video for "Do it With Madonna" by The Androids has several drag queens dressed up as the performers mentioned in the lyrics, including Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, P!nk, Kylie Minogue and, of course, Madonna.
The "Dragapella" group The Kinsey Sicks consists of four men performing a capella in drag and bill themselves as "America's favorite beautyshop quartet."
Divine recorded dance music and had several hits in Europe.
Ru Paul. 'Nuff said.
Courtney Act auditioned for Australian Idol in boy mode and was rejected. She returned in drag and made the show.
Many of the queens who appear on RuPaul's Drag Race released singles either before or after the show.
The driver of "Truck Drivin' Song" by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Brazil saw the emergence of two in The New '10s, Pabllo Vittar and Gloria Groove (the latter also recorded under birth name Daniel Garcia, including from his other job in dubbing).
Despite his reputation for homophobia, Eminem is well known for dressing in drag in his music videos, playing both original characters and campy celebrity impersonations. He's also worked with career drag artists, most prominently Derrick Barry (who plays Britney Spears in the video for "We Made You").

Professional Wrestling

Pro wrestling has so many of these there are not one, not two but three different recurring gimmicks. In the USA, the famous one is Gorgeous George, a wrestler who acts like a stereotypical gay man without actually admitting to being gay. In Mexico, they typically come in the form of exoticos, wrestlers who are openly gay, straight, transgender or otherwise who aim to emasculate their opponents into submission. The third is one of many varieties of men who seek work at all women's events.
At the unauthorized ROH A Night Of Hoopla, Truth Martini called in Lumber Jills to punish Silas Young for stalling during his match with Davey Richards, "Jills" who all turned about to be drag queens.
Sonny Kiss, a wrestling cheerleader who dresses more like a traditional Pom-Pom Girl with his two piece outfit than the standard male bodysuit.

Podcasts

Pokemon: Adventures in the Millennium has three of them act as the Gym Leader in Jubilife City. Their drag names are Prophetia del Phox, Talia Slowqueen, and Veronika d'Abra (the last of whome took the name as their given name as well). They specialize in Psychic-type Pokemon.

Stand-Up Comedy

Chouchou, the neurotic Algerian drag queen persona created by Gad Elmaleh. Got adapted on film in 2003.
John Mulaney had a bit on his special The Top Part questioning why so many drag queens go for the same "big & brassy" persona and deliberately tacky choice of costume, wondering if their ideal notion of a woman is a housewife from The Far Side. He also expresses his annoyance that a lot of them like to bully him and criticize his style:
Why are you so mean? Why is that part of it for you? You went to all the trouble of putting on a nice dress, and now you're going to be rude and bossy to people? Do you know what your version of a woman is a lot like? A guy. You could have stayed a guy, if you were going be an asshole about it!

Theatre

The Dame in traditional British Pantomime. ("Her" actual name and role depends on the story, but there's always one character played as a comedy drag queen. Often the Dame character is the mother or nanny of the protagonist. Cinderella pantomimes sometimes use two Dames as the Ugly Sisters.)
In Torch Song Trilogy, the lead is a professional drag queen.
In Chicago, the sentimental tabloid journalist Mary Sunshine is traditionally played by a man in drag singing falsetto. Whether this is a surprise reveal to the audience in "her" final scene or not depends on the production.
Noel from Ride the Cyclone has a vivid fantasy life as "Monique," a tragic, world-weary sex worker living in 1940s France who lives a life of passion and danger, choosing to "burn out, rather than fade away," the exact opposite of his dull, unfulfilling life in Uranium. His big song, "Noel's Lament," has him wear a Little Black Dress, high heels, and a wig, getting a chance to indulge in his daydream and perform as Monique.
I sing songs until the break of dawn!
I embrace a new man every night!
My life's one never-ending carnival,
a whirl of boozy-floozy flashing light!
I want to be that fucked-up girl.

Video Games

Osomatsu-san Hesokuri Wars: Battle of the NEETs: A set features these, with all the male characters crossdressing. Their names are:
- Oso – Madame Legend
- Kara – Monroe Lamé Man
- Choro – Princess Dewdrop
- Ichi – Shiny Nekomata
- Jyushi – Bases/Loaded the 14th
- Todo – Lady Giuliana
- Hatabou – Hatajou^note
- Dekapan – Whalefield Sperm
- Dayon – Megalip Da Yon~
- Chibita – Baby Testicles^note"Hoden".
- Iyami – Jeanne Darumi
A Pokémon in Pokémon X and Y seems to be a parody of this, which is somewhat fitting for a game with the same name as the sex chromosomes. The pink Plague Doctor bird Pokemon Spritzee's evolved form, Aromatisse, resembles Divine, maybe as a Shout-Out to the John Waters film Pink Flamingos.
Soul Hackers features Drag Queen as recruitable demons. Of note is that these drag queens were so devoted that they became zombies after dying.
Mother 3 features the Magypsies, who are described by Alec as neither man nor woman, and usually look like very feminine men, act in a feminine manner, and are referred to by both male and female pronouns. According to Shigesato Itoi, the characters were based on gender nonconforming friends of his.
Dead Rising 3 has Adam Daley, a man who impersonates singer Bibi Love and puts on performances in her name. The Zombie Apocalypse seems to have triggered a split-personality in him. He constantly switches between himself and Bibi.
Baldurs Gate 3 has Lucretious, the necromancer ringmaster of the Circus of the Last Days, voiced by Drag Race UK alumnus Vinegar Strokes.

Web Animation

Hazbin Hotel: Angel Dust works as a porn star who also works as a drag queen, so he often wears feminine clothing. Being very attractive helps him rake in customers.

Web Comics

The eponymous hero of The Dragon Queen is a male who likes to dress up as a female superhero and got his start cross-dressing in a Drag Queen bar. The character seems to be tending toward identifying as completely female though.
Yoshi of Jenny Haniver is a weekend drag queen, singing at the local drag bar.
A number of characters in Concession, most notably Zoe (real name "Franz") who wears a padded bra and skirt nearly all the time. Nicole (Aaron) drags it up a bit sometimes as well. And there was an arc where Zoe introduced Matt to crossdressing. And finally there's Joel's "Julia Chase" persona.
Neve from Ignition Zero is a drag queen. Unlike most examples, they're also trans (more specifically, genderfluid).

Web Original

Give It To Me Straight: Infamous heterosexual queen from RuPaul's Drag Race, Maddy Morphosis, interviews other Drag Race alumni.
Jiz basically reinterprets Jem as this.
Queer Kid Stuff had an episode devoted to teaching children about dressing in drag, and brought one on the show as a Special Guest.
World of Wonder Presents Drag Tots about baby drag queens. Voiced by Drag Rage alumni including Adore Delano, Bianca Del Rio, Detox, Latrice Royale and Valentina and of course RuPaul herself.
UNHhhh, hosted by Katya and Trixie Mattel.

Western Animation

Super Drags is naturally about drag queen superheroes with magical powers fighting against a drag queen that sucks rainbow light from other gay people.
King of the Hill: Peggy Hill falls in with a group of drag queens and bond over their shared fashion sense. Notably, neither Peggy nor the other queens figure out the others' real gender for most of the episode.
A Stealth Pun in Justice League during the episode "Epilogue" episode. Amanda Waller is recounting the League's last tussle with the Royal Flush Gang, the new Queen, whose make up suspiciously resembled Divine's, turned out to be a man (who also resembled Divine in his clean-face, masculine look).
Several episodes of Kaeloo have Stumpy dress as a girl, sometimes for no apparent reason,
Twink from Q-Force.

Real Life

Paul O'Grady was a British comedian who made a living through the 1980s and 1990s as Lily Savage, his sharp-tongued drag queen alter ego. O'Grady would eventually drop Savage, but continued to appear as himself until his death in 2023.
Verka Serduchka, the drag personality of Ukranian singer Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko, finished second in the Eurovision 2007 contest. He is also a very popular singer in both Russia and Ukraine and successfully performed as a stand-up comedian. Note that he is heterosexual.
Comedian Suzy Eddie Izzard identifies as genderfluid and has performed in drag for almost her entire stand-up career.
- Izzard even does a bit on the differences between being a drag queen and a transvestite (a transvestite being a "male tomboy.") She even identifies herself as the latter, rather than the former.
- Izzard does not only dress in female clothes for performances. It's a personal thing. She's not a drag queen. In Dress To Kill she claims to be "un travesti executif.. un travesti d'action!"
- A live trailer for a chat show once referred to Paul O'Grady as a "transvestite comedian." O'Grady could be heard yelling from backstage "Eddie Izzard's a tranny; I'm a drag artist!"
Dame Edna and her (winkwink) manager, Barry Humphries.
- Plus the performance of I'm Every Woman by Dame Edna and KD Lang.
RuPaul Andre Charles is the most famous drag queen in North America. His drag persona became famous in The '90s for being very approachable...if scarily tall, standing at 6'4 before factoring in the platform heels and big hair. She has released albums and hosted talk shows, and has lately been in the spotlight for the reality show Rupauls Drag Race, essentially America's Next Top Model meets Project Runway meets American Idol with gender-bending.
Queen's video for "I Want to Break Free" had the members dressing up in drag to parody the long-running soap opera Coronation Street.
- And also The Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley music video Where's The Dress (Link goes to the actual music video).
- David Bowie famously wore a dress on the cover of 1970's The Man Who Sold the World, and later combined this with Acting for Two in the video "Boys Keep Swinging" (1979) — all three of his backup singers are him in drag, and the instrumental finish of the song is used to underscore a Fashion Show that gives each one a turn on the catwalk.
  - Marilyn Manson has also done this...many, many times.
The Lady Chablis was a transgender woman who also performed drag at Club One in Savannah, GA. She plays a major part in both the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and appears as herself in the film, as mentioned above.
Bert Savoy was one of the earliest examples of the type, and a major influence on Mae West (several of whose plays included drag queens as characters).
At the Carnival in Aalst, there are a lot of Voil Jeanetten. ^note These are men dressed in drag, but with a lot of beer and some rather weird attributes - like umbrellas with rubber chickens and dead fish tied to them. And for those three days in the year, everyone finds it normal.
Seattle actors Jerick Hoffer (Jinkx Monsoon) and Marc Kenison (Waxie Moon).
Actor Misha Collins renewed his wedding vows at a grocery store, in drag.
Conchita Wurst, the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.
Darcelle XV, a Portland drag Queen whose club, the Darcell XV Showplace, is the longest-running drag show on the West Coast.
José Sarria, AKA Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, José I, The Widow Norton. San Francisco activist who became the world's first openly gay candidate for public office when he ran for San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1961. He founded the Imperial Court System, an international charitable foundation.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is an organization of drag queens with a nun motif that has chapters all over the world. Rather than performing, their main goals are charity, education, and outreach for the GLBT community. They elevate sacrilege to an artform with their genderfuck drag style and are guaranteed to turn heads wherever they appear.
Dyhzy, the child of Alberto Fernandez (the President of Argentina) is a drag queen who identifies as nonbinary.

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Alternative Title(s): Drag King

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Drag Queen

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Examples:

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Alternative Title(s): Drag King

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