Irish drag queen Panti Bliss. Illustration by Lia Kantrowitz
From the Compton's Cafeteria riots to decades of pride parades, drag queens have always been champions of political activism. It's hardly surprising, then, that queens were instrumental in Ireland's battle for marriage equality, helping to cinch the 2015 vote to legalize same-sex marriage by constitutional amendment. The charge was led by Panti Bliss, an Irish queen who was sued for calling anti-equality campaigners homophobic on national television and later delivered a viral speech about the reality of living with homophobia that won her international acclaim.Bliss brought the battle for marriage equality into theaters, nightclubs, and drag shows; alongside a rising class of activist queens, drag culture played a decisive role in securing a marriage-equality victory by engaging Ireland's queer youth.But amid criticism that old-line activist movements suffer from a lack of intersectionality, what happened to Ireland's newly politicized queer youth next should serve as a lesson to organizers around the world. Because after the LGBTQ community's stunning political victories in 2015, the political vacuum in Ireland's gay clubs has been filled by the movement to repeal the country's Eighth Amendment, which prohibits abortion.Read more on VICE.
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