How drag bans have made clothing a political statement, according to a queer style expert

[icymist]

Fashion can be political, especially for gay and transgender people, and that reality was part of the inspiration behind queer style expert Anita Dolce Vita’s first book.

Vita, founder of the queer fashion site dapperQ and author of “dapperQ Style: Ungendering Fashion,” said that as she was interviewing LGBTQ people about style, the narrative that fashion is a tool for political resistance “kept growing stronger and stronger as the far right continues to attack our identities and tries to erase us.

“To me, this book was really important, not only as a celebration of our identities but as an important political conversation that needs to be had right now,” she said.

It’s 2023, but Vita said the country is returning to the 1940s. In the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, police reportedly used an informal “three-article rule” to arrest people for cross-dressing if they weren’t wearing three pieces of attire that aligned with their assigned sex at birth. LGBTQ elders have since told researchers they were arrested in bar raids under that rule.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-life-and-style/drag-bans-made-clothing-political-statement-according-queer-style-expe-rcna85777

[Behind the Aegis]

1. We have been here before, as stated in the article.

Updated bigotry is still bigotry. There is some push back in some areas in regard to drag, which is good, but I don't know how long it will last.

[Runningdawg]

2. My BF grandmother lived through Nazi Germany.

When I asked in 1982 "How will we know if it's happening here?" This was her answer.
"EVERYTHING will become political. The clothes you wear, the food you eat, the books you read and where you buy all that. News on the radio and in the papers will begin and end with politics. Grey disappears, everything becomes black or white, you or them."
The scariest thing she said was "It will happen in your lifetime".

[icymist]

3. Yeah.

"Let's elect an orange-faced guy who keeps a copy of Mien Komph by his bedside. What could possibly go wrong?" said every RWNJ.