Huysuz Virjin vs. the Law? Drag Bans in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey

The renaissance of drag in the last fifteen years has coincided with the rise of right-wing populist governments and their efforts to regulate queer performances across the world. The career of Turkey’s most famous drag queen Huysuz Virjin [Cranky Virjin] demonstrates the complex histories of drag bans, and how conservative regimes employ not only the law and explicit censorship policies but also extralegal strategies to regulate drag performances. This case study shows that while drag bans may aggravate the precarity that characterizes trans lives and transphobia may harm drag performers, the careers of cis drag queens may remain unaffected by or even indirectly benefit from anti-trans legislation.