Jinkx Monsoon delivers a few home truths to ‘backwards’ lawmakers pushing drag bans
Jinkx Monsoon has once again slammed drag bans in America (NBC News)
Drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon has blasted lawmakers pushing anti-drag bans amid rising anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in America.
Monsoon, who won season five of RuPaul’s Drag Race and All Stars 7, is nearing the end of a historic run on Broadway in the Tony Award-winning revival of Chicago, in which she’s become the first drag artist to portray matron Mama Morton.
Despite performing eight times a week, she has still found time to appear on American news networks to speak out against the raft of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation sweeping across the United States.
After delivering an epic takedown of “asinine” lawmakers on MSNBC last week, Monsoon has now returned to the airwaves on NBC News to delve deeper into the sinister political climate.
When asked by host Joe Fryer whether she felt as though we’re “living in two different worlds”, Monsoon acknowledged that is indeed odd how drag can be simultaneously celebrated and demonised.
“There are people who want progress, and to move forward, and there are people who want to either stay where they are or move backwards,” Monsoon said.
She also told Fryer how performing in Chicago has allowed her to be her truest self.
“This is who I am. This is who I was always meant to be. This is how I am following my dreams.”
“I’ve never been happier. I’m having the time of my life”.
Previously, Monsoon appeared on ‘The One on One’ segment of news programme The 11th Hour on MSNBC with host Stephanie Ruhle.
“Drag is an art form that was born in the LGBTQIA+ community, so if you don’t take time to know that community, of course aspects of drag are not going to make sense to you,” Monsoon explained. “But you don’t have to understand everything to know that it should be allowed to exist.”
The Drag Race star questioned why anyone should obsessively seek to govern what other people do with their lives, when it has no effect on them.
“Drag is being demonised as a ploy, as a tactic, and it’s really upsetting because we’re living in this time where I sit on my phone in the car on the way to [perform in Chicago]… I sit there seeing people debate over the eradication of members of my community and my art form.”
Tennessee recently became the first US state to ban drag performances in public places, as well as implement a crackdown on gender-affirming care for trans youth, prompting Monsoon to denounce right-wing lawmakers as “f**king cowards”.
