(Photo by Jon Dean)
People working in the building where the "Legendary Children" photo exhibit of some of Atlanta's raucous drag queens is on display are feeling uncomfortable with the images and requested at least two photographs be covered up and another relocated.
The exhibit, located in Gallery 1526 at 1526 DeKalb Ave. NE, drew the ire this week of employees located in the same space as the art gallery. The photos are hanging in the hallways of the building and can be seen by others working in the building as they go to and from work.
Drag queens may bend gender, but they have broken this traveler's understanding of ecosystems, achieving a feat unduplicated anywhere else in nature.
Neither during my summers in the Galapagos Islands nor my expeditions to the Great Barrier Reef have I observed a population that is so rare and simultaneously abundant, so small yet powerful, as the Drag Genus is in the Queer Kingdom.
These colorful creatures compose the tiniest fraction of the Queer Kingdom – or, to use the vernacular phrase, the LGBT community – and yet their presence dominates. They rule the kingdom's nightlife. They once monopolized media images of herding rituals known as Pride parades. They are the stereotype, with a good many of those outside the Queer Kingdom mistakenly thinking that all within the LGBT community are drag queens.