Don't Ban This Drag Queen!

We have a lot of problems in the country and around the world right now. The Russian war in Ukraine, China’s aggressive posture in the Pacific and elsewhere, high inflation, border security and immigration challenges, mass shootings and gun violence, … and apparently drag shows and drag queens! What to do about this last and newest existential crisis? How about creating a cocktail to bring us all together? I present to you, the drag queen cocktail!

The Drag Queen Cocktail, in All its Glory!!

Every morning I read two newspapers to keep me up to speed on world, national, and local news: The Washington Post and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. As I’m sure you will agree, it can get pretty depressing reading about all of the challenges we face both at home and abroad. And the list of those challenges just keeps growing and growing!

But imagine my surprise when I started seeing regular articles in both papers about the latest and greatest threat to democracy and our great country – drag queens and drag shows! Who knew?! Apparently, they represent all that’s wrong with America, and need to be banned to ensure no harm comes to either children or adults who might be exposed to them.

In fact, the threat is so great that anti-drag bills have been introduced in 15 different states this year alone. So, if you live in Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, or Florida then you can rest easy – the state legislatures are frantically working to pass bills to ban these mortal threats once and for all!

To honor all those dedicated public servants who are working on this issue so hard, the RuPublicans Instragram account recently posted AI-generated photos of some of our favorite culture warriors in drag. Here are just a few of them:

AI-generated photos of Lindsey Graham, Rudi Guiliani, and Mike Pence in drag (Source: RuPublicans Instragram)

And since I live in Florida, I also felt obligated to include the AI-generated photo of our governor, Ron “Don’t Say Gay and Down with Disney” DeSantis:

AI-generated photo of Ron DeSantis in drag (Source: RuPublicans Instragram)

They all look fabulous, don’t you think?! Anywhoo, many of my loyal readers will recall that I often commemorate memorable news events by creating a cocktail and naming it after the “headline”. Some of my previous creations include “The Stock Market Meltdown Margarita” named after the crash of the stock market right after the pandemic started in 2020, as well as the “Kyiv Mule” named in honor of Ukraine after Russia brutally invaded sovereign Ukraine territory and announced their “special military operation”, aka, war.

So, given the importance of this latest news, I decided to create a cocktail to commemorate this critical event in our nation’s history – I call it the “Drag Queen Cocktail”, and I sincerely hope it doesn’t get banned or cancelled by anyone!

While creating this cocktail, I was aiming for something flamboyant, fun, frisky, and fabulous! I started with something spicy (spiced rum), and then added something sexy (passion fruit liqueur), something sweet (orange liqueur and grenadine), and finally something sour (lemon juice). My concoction bears a passing resemblance to a cocktail known as the Hurricane, but mine is boozier, less sweet, and more complex than that drink. So, shake one of these up and then toast to all of the drag queens out there – we love you!

The Drag Queen Cocktail (Serves 1)

This cocktail celebrates the drag queen in all of us! And while you probably don’t have all of these ingredients on hand (like the passion fruit liqueur for example), you can easily find them at any large wine or liquor store. Also, it’s worth it to use a good quality spiced rum – our favorite is Captain Morgan Private Stock Spiced Rum.

Ingredients

2 oz. spiced rum

2 oz. passion fruit liqueur

1 oz. orange liqueur (such as Grand Marnier or Triple-Sec)

1 oz. grenadine

1 oz. lemon juice

Directions

Combine all the ingredients into a shaker. Add ice and shake vigorously for 20-30 seconds, until frost forms on the shaker. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a tiki umbrella and straw for sipping!