Drag has been around since at least 1388 but the first time the word “drag” was used for the gay culture was not around until the 1920’s. The drag balls began in Harlem’s Hamilton Lodge in New York. This is because New York City is the center of the world’s drag ball culture. Around this time, these drag balls were put on the down low for the reason that the gay community could feel welcome and this building was a safe place where they could all gather and communicate. As the drag balls grew, they were seen as illegal and immortal by society. A moral reform organization known as the Committee of Fourteen later investigated these drag balls because detailing scandalous behavior that was witnessed.

By the 1920s, the balls started making more public visibility. The balls were later called “Faggot Balls” because the later public was aware that not only gay people were attending, but by lesbian and transgender people as well. The balls were crucial in the creation and maintenance of the LGBTQ culture. Historian, George Chauncey, pointed out that Harlem enhanced the solidarity of the gay world. However, powering through all the harassment and arrests, Harlem became a “homosexual mecca.”

Hoffman, Baylie. “The History of Drag.” Struthers Library Theatre, Struthers Library Theatre, 7 June 2023, www.strutherslibrarytheatre.org/blog/the-art-and-history-of-drag. Accessed March 28 2024.

Ball culture. (2024, March 1). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_culture. Accessed March 28 2024.

Stabbe, Oliver. “Queens and Queers: The Rise of Drag Ball Culture in the 1920s.” National Museum of American History, 16 Apr. 2016, americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/queens-and-queers-rise-drag-ball-culture-1920s. Accessed March 28 2024.