Condragulations are in order, as RuPaul’s Drag Race adds another Emmy to its glittering, heaving cabinet of well-earned awards.
Drag Race took home Best Reality Competition Program at this year’s Emmys, beating The Amazing Race, Survivor, Top Chef, and The Voice — it’s the fifth win for the show in this category. Drag Race now has a whopping 29 Emmys and 63 nominations, and it’s the eighth consecutive win for RuPaul as host, making him the most awarded host in Emmy’s history and the record-holder for most wins by a person of colour.
“If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her.”
Accepting the award on behalf of the Drag Race team alongside fellow judges Michelle Visage, Carson Kressley, and Ross Mathews, RuPaul took a moment to champion children’s library events like Drag Story Hour that encourage diversity, creativity, and education, and which have been ludicrously and harmfully targeted by the far-right and conspiracy theorists.
“We are so honored to have this award,” RuPaul said onstage. “Listen, you guys are just pure lovely for honouring our show and recognizing all these queens. We have released into the wild hundreds of drag queens and they’re beautiful. On behalf of all them, we thank you.
“If a drag queen wants to read you a story at a library, listen to her because knowledge is power and if someone tries to restrict your access to power, they are trying to scare you, so listen to a drag queen.”
According to GLAAD, there were 161 protests and attacks on drag events in 2022 in the U.S. — including library events like Drag Story Hour — and the organisation also examined the weaponising of these events by “extremist politicians” to propose drag bans.
“GLAAD reviewed legislative proposals in six states that aim to restrict or ban drag. In most cases, extremist politicians pointed to local drag events as the motivation for new legislation that would ban public drag performances such as those that take place at Pride festivals, or ban minors from observing drag performers, including library events such as Drag Story Hour.”
What is Drag Story Hour? Created by Michelle Tea and RADAR Productions in San Francisco in 2015 and having seen spinoffs across the world, it’s best described by the team themselves:
“It’s just what it sounds like! Storytellers using the art of drag to read books to kids in libraries, schools, and bookstores. DSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”
Sign. Us. Up. If you want to book an event (in the U.S.), check out the website.
