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Notable Members of the Drag Industry
The drag industry has become big business over the past few years. As part of the entertainment industry overall, it consists of individuals who use dress and make-up of a sex different than their own along with a flamboyant exaggeration of their imitated personality. Drag shows usually include lip-syncing and dancing to popular music as well as stand-up comedy. Drag is considered an amplified expression of one's self on stage, open to all genders, races and ages.
There is a rich history to the drag industry. From ancient Greek and Roman cultures to Japan's Kabuki tradition, through to Shakespearean times, it was a common theatre practice for men to impersonate women on stage. This carried over into Opera in Europe. The rise of vaudeville and burlesque in the early 1900s introduced more women to the industry.
Many members of the LGBTQ community participate in the drag industry. In addition to drag queens and kings on stage and television, there are producers, club owners, writers, artists, and choreographers. In Mexico, there are professional wrestlers who perform in drag known as Lucha Libre ("free wrestling").
Perhaps the most famous and widely known drag star today is American RuPaul. He is the creator and host of the reality television show RuPaul's Drag Race and its spinoff shows. To date he has received eleven Emmy Awards. The show has created a multi-million dollar industry.
Popular drag stars are active in the LGBTQ community. Today, drag is important for its impact on human rights movements. Drag stars are prominent AIDS activists and rights advocates. Many have written books about their personal history, are active in social media, appear in DragCons, participate in travelling circuit shows and world tours, and have moved on to modelling. Advertising, theatre, the fashion industry, and film are eagerly signing up today's popular drag stars.
We have identified notable individuals in the drag industry who identify as LGBTQ from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States. To read more and see the complete list, click HERE
Directory of past 'Did You Know?' Articles See Here
The goal of QueerBio.com is to be the definitive online biographical reference source for the international LGBTQ community. Its database lists over 17,000 contemporary and historical figures who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, two-spirit, or gender fluid (LGBTQ) and includes artists, sports figures, politicians, entertainers, business leaders, academics, activists, and more. The database is widely international in scope and is an ideal source for research and analysis with full search and sort functionality.
The mission is to inspire, educate, and motivate all generations of LGBTQ individuals and others through a collective knowledge of this international community.
Managing Editor: Mark S. Bonham
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To search for an individual from the database of over 17,000 biographies, simply type the name in the Search Box located in the top right hand corner of this Home Page and click on GO. Similarly, you can search for a common characteristic such as Country, City, Nobel Prize winners, writers, and so on.
Alternatively, you can view and scroll through the entire list of biographies by viewing the All Biographies section.
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Announcing Our New Documentary Project - Being Different: 101 Global LGBTQ Individuals Who Changed the World
Despite adversity and discrimination, LGBTQ individuals have excelled throughout history. Yet historians and academics have conveniently participated in the heterosexist erasure of these LGBTQ contributions by omitting the LGBTQ status of prominent historical figures from academic and historical documents. Accordingly, there are relatively few comprehensive projects which document and showcase the influence of these LGBTQ efforts.
Being Different: 101 Global LGBTQ Individuals Who Changed The World will be an original documentary outlining the contributions that members of the LGBTQ community have made, individually and collectively, to changing the world.
We are now Crowdfunding to get this project off the ground. We would love to have you as part of our team. You can help us and SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!
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Bonham Centre Awards Gala
Annual Awards established in 2007 to recognize individuals or groups that have made a significant contribution to the advancement and education of human rights issues surrounding sexual education. Click here to find out more about the Bonham Centre Awards, past recipients, and present nominees.
Books Available From QueerBio.Com
It's A Fabulous Morning! My Interviews With Fascinating People in the LGBTQ World (Pearse Murray and Mark S. Bonham, 2019) presents fascinating interviews with individuals from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Two Spirit and Ally (LGBTQ) community. Icons such as Lily Tomlin, Chaz Bono, Melissa Etheridge, Mark Tewksbury, John Cameron Mitchell, Kathleen Wynne, Wanda Sykes, Tony Kushner, David Hockney, Edmund White and more provide their personal stories of the community and their lives within it. Compelling insight into events of the community, such as Toronto’s Bath House Raids, is also provided. 262 pages.
A Path to Diversity: LGBTQ Participation in the Working World (Mark S. Bonham, 2017) investigates the current state of employment markets around the world for the LGBTQ community. Included is a discussion of equality in the workplace and why it is important to both the employer and employee, the wage gap, which professions are attractive to LGBTQ individuals and why, and the role of unions and government legislation. A survey of seventy five professions provides a status report for each, and seventy two biographies of influential LGBTQ professionals from around the world is included. 242 pages
Notables: 101 Global LBGTQ People Who Changed the World (Mark S. Bonham, 2015) reveals a group of select global Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) individuals whose accomplishments in their profession changed the world in some relevant way. Included are founders of various social movements, innovators in sports, leaders in business and politics, explorers and discoverers, instigators in religious movements, thinkers in philosophy, infamous villains, creators of new academic fields of study, and risk takers in the arts, culture, and entertainment worlds. 212 pages.
Champions: Biographies of Global LGBTQ Pioneers (Mark S. Bonham, 2014) reveals a group of select artists, writers, politicians, lawyers, sports figures, activists, and religious figures from around the world who have helped shape the history of the LGBTQ community. Presented in a convenient notebook format. 114 pages.
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