A History of Love! Law’s A Drag tell LGBTQ+ stories in cabaret show for LGBT+ History Month
In celebration of LGBT+ History Month, Law's a Drag - a network of academics and drag artists who work to research and tackle inequalities and injustices faced by drag artists - hosted a cabaret show.
Entitled "A History of Love!" the show explored how LGBTQ+ love has been hidden, punished, fought for, and celebrated over the centuries. It featured drag artists from the Law's a Drag (LAD) network, performing live music, lip syncs, dancing, comedy, and more, to tell the tale of queer love in the UK.
Dr Rosie Fox (AKA Fox Populi) and Dr James Greenwood-Reeves (AKA Alice Aforethought) – the two "dragademics" at the School of Law – drafted the script, which acted as the spine holding the show together. It featured the historical criminalisation of man-to-man acts, the trials of Oscar Wilde, the chemical castration of Alan Turing, how woman-to-woman acts were overlooked by the law, and recent legal developments for trans and nonbinary people.
Representing the early 20th century, Fae Fatale created a video and lip sync performance based on the Bloomsbury set, and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. For the 1980s, Pop Tart lipsynced to Freddie Mercury singing ‘Living On My Own’. Representing 1980s–90s ball culture, the Haus of Reason (ft. Pembo, Mattress, and Laila Gaga-Parker) celebrated drag houses as "found families”, which were important sources of community in the absence of legally recognised family relationships amongst queer people in those decades. Alice and Fox gave their own performances, with a comedic joint medley on gay marriage, and Fox delivering a solo medley on bi-erasure.
The audience loved it; they were singing along and bought "drag tip tokens" that boosted performer income and demonstrated their appreciation for the artists’ work. They also engaged heavily with the legal/historical content.
They jeered at the mention of Section 28, which came into effect during Margaret Thatcher’s premiership, and the unelected House of Lords refusing to lower the age of consent for man-to-man relations to the same age as for heterosexual acts. They cheered when Alice and Fox talked about gay marriage, the first Pride parade in London in 1972, and other big steps on the road to equality. Importantly, Alice and Fox told the tale of how there is not one linear, inevitable march of progress: there are twists and turns, there are setbacks, and there is a huge amount of work being done even now to undermine trans people's lives and their rights to live freely.
Alice and Fox say:
Our thanks go out to Hyde Park Book Club for hosting us, Tom and Lulu for running tech, Claire Owen in the UoL EDI team for helping arrange everything, our artists: Fae Fatale, Pop Tart, and the Haus of Reason ft. Pembo, Mattress, and Laila Gaga-Parker, for their amazing performances, our beautiful audience for their enthusiasm and gusto, and everyone at the School of Law for their continuing support of the LAD project!
- Learn more about Law’s a Drag at their website here, and keep up with them on Instagram and Bluesky here.
