Drag in Oklahoma : the power of performance.

Abstract

This thesis examines the drag impersonators of Oklahoma. The purpose of this research project is to discover how drag is a form of social protest in Oklahoma and how Oklahoma drag differs or coincides with drag in America. This project is being done to compile information on social protest of the LGBTQ people from Oklahoma, specifically the drag performers. The research will result in knowledge of the current transgender equality movement effectuated by drag performers in the Oklahoma LGBTQ community. The current study on drag performance focuses on drag as a form of social protest for equality within the LGBTQ community with many historians gathering information on coastal cities within America. This project would take the base of the current knowledge and refocus it on Oklahoma to extend the study of drag in history. I will build on the current historiography that focuses on the activism shown by the larger homosexual dominant cities. By doing my own interviews and examining source material and media, I will extend the study of drag to middle America and reveal the activism of Oklahoma drag and how it relates to the LGBTQ community's marginalization by the state.