Oddly, one of the most revealing things in the GLBT Historical Society’s new exhibit is an overwrought denunciation of Black drag queens dating from all the way back in 1893. One Dr. Charles H. Hughes of St. Louis (clearly incensed) had his note published by a medical journal of the era.

It states, in part:

I am credibly informed that there is, in the city of Washington, D.C., an annual convocation of negro men called the drag dance, which is an orgy of lascivious debauchery beyond pen power of description.

(Imagine hearing the phrase “orgy of lascivious debauchery” and thinking that was a bad thing!)

Dr. Hughes’ quote is part of the introduction to I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live: A Celebration of Trans People of Color, a collection of photos and ephemera honorin

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