By: M’Elise Salomon
There are currently 530 anti-LGBTQ bills circulating in the U.S.[1] Meanwhile, Chappell Roan—popstar, drag queen, and queer icon—is parading around her NPR tiny desk concert in an XL orange wig, exaggerated make-up, lipstick smeared over her teeth, and a puffy pink prom dress.[2] Young American queers, including Chappell Roan, face a perplexing dilemma: there’s an explosion of queer representation in pop culture, yet state and local governments are eager to legislate queer life out of their communities. What gives?
Chappell Roan was born in Willard, Missouri, a town of 7,000 people just outside of Springfield.[3] Roan had an isolated childhood—she grew up queer in a conservative, Christian town. As an adolescent, Roan noticed that neither Willard nor Springfield had opportunities for visible, queer community.[4] So, Roan left Willard for Los Angeles to pursue her music career.[5] While in LA, she honed her voice, grew into her stage persona, and drew inspiration from drag culture.[6] Now, her music screams queer joy.[7] In fact, she describes her 2023 album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” as “just daydreams in drag.”[8] Roan invites the audience to join her in this daydream—to show up as the confident, out adults that their younger selves needed.[9] Roan even purposely opens every act with local drag queens because “a lot of people don’t even know that they have local drag queens or that drag happens in their town.”[10]
A year ago, Roan had a homecoming: her Midwest Princess preview show in Springfield, Missouri sold out.[11] When she walked on stage and looked at the crowd, she was surprised.[12] These weren’t the people she knew from her conservative, Christian childhood.[13] These folks were joyously queer and eager to participate in her daydream.[14] It was a lightbulb moment for her: even though she felt isolated as a queer kid, now there was a vibrant LGBTQ+ community in Missouri ready to accept her.[15]
However, as Chappell Roan’s music career was taking off, her home state launched 40 anti-LGBTQ bills.[16] While most of these bills are still waiting around in committees, one municipal ordinance in nearby Branson is already on the books.[17] The Branson Board of Aldermen passed Ordinance No. 2023-0081 in August of 2023.[18] This ordinance amends sections 94-5, 94-60, and 94-62 of the Branson Municipal Code.[19] First, it defines drag shows as any live entertainment performance where adults “impersonate male or female characters while wearing extravagant costumes…subvert gender stereotypes; and the performance includes jokes, references, dancing, singing, or any other conduct that depicts, describes, or relates to specified sexual activities.”[20] Then, it relegates any new businesses that offer drag shows to the downtown zoning district and further regulates their building requirements.[21] These restrictions for new drag establishments include several hurdles: no show can be held within 600 feet of any religious institution, school, residentially-zoned property, or public park; all establishments must have at least 100 feet of street frontage; the establishment must be enclosed by a six-foot wall; no part of the drag show can occur outside; and the establishment must ensure that all entryways and windows are designed in a way that prevents the public from seeing inside.[22]
During the public comment period, several community members were concerned that these new regulations were an attempt to stamp out queer life in Branson.[23] First, they pointed out that Branson’s downtown district does not overlap with the entertainment district. In fact, the downtown district has the least amount of commercial land, and downtown lots don’t have the required minimum frontage and setbacks.[24] One local drag show promoter remarked that under these regulations, “there is no venue that can hold a drag show in the downtown district.”[25]
This ordinance is begging for court scrutiny. In fact, an attorney for the City admitted that it was difficult to draft this new ordinance without violating the First Amendment or committing gender discrimination.[26]
Despite Branson’s anti-drag ordinance and Missouri’s many attempts to pass anti-LGBTQ laws, Roan feels grateful for her Midwest roots.[27] Roan won’t reject “entire swaths of the country as backward or too conservative.”[28] Chappell Roan’s rise to pop stardom represents an important cultural shift in America: queer life doesn’t exist only in big, coastal cities. There’s queer community everywhere, even in Willard and Branson. Those from rural, conservative places have the power to carve out spaces for themselves, to celebrate their queerness, and to resist state and local governments that target LGBTQ+ communities. In fact, they have the world’s best queer cheerleader—Chappell Roan. Now, it’s up to Branson locals to bring a constitutional challenge to their anti-drag ordinance.
[1] Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures in 2024, ACLU (Sept. 5, 2024), https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2024.
[2] Vanja Kadic, US pop star Chappell Roan: “I’m a drag queen—whether you like it or not, Annabelle (June 17, 2024), https://www.annabelle.ch/ [https://perma.cc/QDH4-G52E].
[3] Hannah Krieg, Chappell Roan Transformed the Showbox into Her “Pink Pony Club”, The Stranger (Nov. 13, 2023), https://www.thestranger.com/ [https://perma.cc/75WR-SCZ3].
[4] Id.
[5] Shaad D’Souza, Chappell Roan, pop’s next big thing: ‘I grew up thinking being gay was a sin’, The Guardian (Dec. 29, 2023), https://www.theguardian.com/ [https://perma.cc/9WJB-AG5M].
[6] Id.
[7] Kadic, supra note 2.
[8] Nardos Haile, “Drag is a protest”: How Chappell Roan’s fierce persona spells liberation for the queer community, Salon (July 4, 2024), https://www.salon.com [https://perma.cc/XWE9-Q8FK].
[9] Deepa Fernandes et al., Chappell Roan is throwing a pop party, and queer joy is at the heart of it, wbur (Aug. 2, 2023), https://www.wbur.org/ [https://perma.cc/DUX7-KZ2V].
[10] Id.
[11] Sofia Andrade, Chappell Roan doesn’t care if she’s going to hell, The Washington Post (Oct. 14, 2023), https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2023/10/14/chappell-roan-queer-pop/.
[12] Fernandes, supra note 9.
[13] Id.
[14] Id.
[15] Id.
[16] Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights in U.S. State Legislatures in 2024, ACLU (Sept. 5, 2024), https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights-2024?state=MO.
[17] Id.; Branson, Mo., Code of Ordinances No. 2023-0081 (2023), https://library.municode.com/mo/branson/ordinances/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=1231629.
[18] Branson, Mo., Code of Ordinances No. 2023-0081.
[19] Id.
[20] Id.
[21] Annelise Hanshaw, Branson places ‘adult performance’ restrictions on drag shows, Missouri Independent (July 26, 2023, https://missouriindependent.com/ [https://perma.cc/SV8F-3V8E].
[22] Branson, Mo., Code of Ordinances No. 2023-0081.
[23] Hanshaw, supra note 21.
[24] Id.
[25] Id.
[26] Id.
[27] Andrade, supra note 11.
[28] Id.
