Can the state of a city’s drag community be an indicator of its economic vitality? Urbanist and author Nicholas Lalla thinks so.

In a recent HuffPost op-ed, Lalla argues that the conservative moral panic around drag of recent years — along with the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and take away the rights of trans Americans — has negative economic implications for cities around the country. It’s a theory he calls “The Drag Queen Test.”

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Drag artists protest outside Kennedy center after Donald Trump banned them from performing there
“Drag is not just an invaluable form of self-expression, but is a means of self-discovery,” one protestor said.

“The Drag Queen Test is my shorthand for evaluating a city’s economic vitality,” Lalla writes. “It asks the following: How does the city treat its drag queens? Does it have nondiscrimination laws? Does it avoid restrictions on adult performance? Does it foster safe spaces for queer communities? Does it possess an ecosystem that supports queer talent and expression? Do local queens make it to RuPaul’s Drag Race, the televised pinnacle of the drag queen industry?”

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“Cities that answer ‘yes’ to these questions are more likely to have dynamic cultures and inclusive communities — and yes, thriving economies.”

According to Lalla, who works with cities to build inclusive economies, communities in which drag performers can thrive are likely to be more economically vital than those in which they can’t. Drag queens, he writes, draw young LGBTQ+ people with more purchasing power to cities’ entertainment districts.

Beyond creating and sustaining jobs in bars and restaurants, however, Lalla argues that the way a city treats its drag community is an indicator of its economic vitality more broadly.

“Creative class workers tend to gravitate toward cities where they feel welcome and included,” he writes. “This welcoming culture translates into economic growth for the very basic reason that more workers and more consumers lead to greater activity and growth.”

But cities that attack drag via the kind of local laws that restrict where performances can occur and who can see them, he argues, are less appealing to the kind of creative professionals, including those in STEM and knowledge-intensive fields, who are “critical drivers of innovation and growth.”

Lalla backs up his “Drag Queen Test” with recent studies from UCLA Law School’s Williams Institute and Wells Fargo and cites fellow urbanist Richard Florida’s research, all of which indicate that cities and states where LGBTQ+ people feel welcome tend to see greater, more dynamic economic growth. He cites Atlanta, Detroit, and Minneapolis as examples of cities outside of coastal LGBTQ+ meccas like New York and Los Angeles with both a higher per capita GDP and larger queer communities than most metro areas in the U.S.

“A city that supports drag queens supports the LGBTQ+ community,” Lalla concludes, “and, by extension, fosters the creativity and innovation that drive economic growth. It would behoove cities, therefore, to foster communities where drag queens, trans individuals, queer people, and their allies feel welcome. Doing so shows LGBTQ+ people and the wider creative class that the city is welcoming and full of the amenities that many people — LGBTQ+ or not — look for.”

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