You Better Vote: Drag Performers and Voter Mobilization in the 2020 Election

Drag has long been part of the LGBTQ rights movement. Drag performers play an important role as community leaders and political activists. Today, drag performers are also popular celebrities in the rest of society. This article explores the role of drag performers as community leaders and celebritie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PS, political science & politics political science & politics, 2022-10, Vol.55 (4), p.655-660
Main Authors: Kammerer, Edward F., Michelson, Melissa R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome
AIDS
Artists
Audiences
Behavior Change
Best Practices
Celebrities
Community
Community Relations
Conventions
Credibility
Drag (Performance)
Elections
Endorsements
Familiarity
HIV
Human immunodeficiency virus
Interviews
LGBTQ community
LGBTQ people
LGBTQ rights
Mobilization
Political Issues
Political leadership
Politics
Presidential elections
Semi Structured Interviews
Sexual Orientation
Volunteers
Voter behavior
Voters
Voting
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Summary:Drag has long been part of the LGBTQ rights movement. Drag performers play an important role as community leaders and political activists. Today, drag performers are also popular celebrities in the rest of society. This article explores the role of drag performers as community leaders and celebrities in the context of the 2020 presidential election. To understand this, we interviewed drag performers about their experiences using drag to mobilize voters. Research shows that Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts are more successful if they are led by volunteers and include trusted messengers while still being unexpected in some way. Drag performers are community leaders and volunteers and, when speaking about politics, deliver unexpected—and thus memorable—messages. The drag performers that we interviewed demonstrate the potential for drag artists to be effective GOTV messengers, in both the LGBTQ community and society more broadly.
ISSN:1049-0965
1537-5935
DOI:10.1017/S1049096522000713