Drag culture is having a moment, on TV and right here

She's a global gay icon, a self-proclaimed "supermodel of the world," and the driving force behind one of the most talked-about representations of drag culture on television.

RuPaul's eponymous reality television showRuPaul's Drag Racepits drag performers against each other and now that the show is on Netflix, it's riding a wave of mainstream buzz.

Tonight two drag queens from theshow will be in Ottawa for Capital Pride, at the same time that local drag performers fight for thecrown at the festival's annual Capital Pride Pageant.

With thepageant only hours away, Ed Kwan better known locally as drag queen China Doll and drag king Master Cameron Eric Leon spoke with CBC Radio'sOttawa Morningabout both the significance of drag to the LGBTQ community, and its moment in the broader cultural zeitgeist.

Drag queens hit the runway at Capital Pride Pageant

6 years ago

Duration 1:11

Ottawa drag performers fight for the crown at the festival's annual Capital Pride Pageant.

Challenging ideas about gender

"When I started doing drag, I had known for a while I wasgenderqueer," said Leon, a former pageant winner. "Expressing myself through it meant that I had an outlet for a part of myself that I'd never really been able to explore."

"[Drag kings and queens] are trying to challengeheteronormativeconcepts of gender,which are things that, especially for queer people, really try to put us in a box and make us something that we're not."

RuPaul's Drag Racehas played a major rolebringing drag culture into the mainstream,said Kwan, who's serving as the grand marshal for this year's Capital Pride.

"Children come up to me, and they're so sassy. They come up to me and say, 'What gender are you?' I mean, who would say that! Like, a five-year-old to an adult!" Kwan said.

"For me, I have to be a role model for them, because that's the way it is in this day and age."

Leon said RuPaul's Drag Race has a few "problematic elements," including the misrepresentation of drag as being mainly men dressing as women, without often addressing the wider spectrum of performers who identify as genderqueer.

That said, Leon remains a fan of the show, which was renewed earlier this summer for an 11th season.

Mainstream recognition

"I enjoy watching it because I enjoy watching the artistry, I enjoy watching people from my community represented in mainstream culture," he said.

"We unfortunately don't have a lot of opportunities to see ourselves reflected in something as big as that. So it's kind of nice to have that recognition."

Kwan agreed, and said if the show convinces people to check out tonight's pageant, they'll be in for a sensory spectacle.

"[It's] eye-opening, eye-popping. People of all races, colours, creeds,they come and they watch it with an open heart," Kwan said. "And I just see the joy in people's faces when they witness all that."

The Capital Pride Pageant gets underway at 7 p.m. tonight, and organizersexpect about twice as many people to attend this year's edition compared to 2017.