Thanks to the popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race, the glitzy and glamorous world of drag – which has been around for eons – has enjoyed a steady ascent to the realms of popular culture in recent years.

Whether you were rooting for Lawrence Chaney or backing Bimini in the recent final of the second season of the British offshoot of the show, drag is a world many of us, particularly over the last year, have lived vicariously through. Drag queens are bold, beautiful and downright brilliant, but a common misconception is that drag is a subculture dominated by cisgender men who perform as women. However, that’s not always the case.

There is a host of female and non-binary drag queens who are commonly referred to as bio queens, and are equally as raunchy and resplendent, although not without misplaced controversy within the drag community.

Indeed, many prominent figures within the world of drag have taken issue with female and non-binary queens, with RuPaul himself noting in The Guardian in 2018: “Drag loses its sense of danger and its sense of irony once it’s not men doing it.” He later apologised for his comments.

But in a world that encourages inclusivity, there’s room enough for cisgender men, women and non-binary folk to enter the drag realm and claim their crowns. These are a few of the female and non-binary queens to check out now.

Victoria Sin

Meet the female and non-binary queens taking the world of drag by storm