When looking at media, few works of literature have achieved the critical success and enduring resonance with the LGBTQ community that \u201cThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz\u201d has.<\/p>\n
From its messages of radical acceptance, home, and belonging, to its subversions of gender norms and its memorable, fluidly gendered characters, \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d has remained a queer cultural touchstone more than 125 years after its first publication.<\/p>\n
The book itself offered many LGBTQ readers one of their first glimpses of a world that celebrated differences that might otherwise be considered \u201cqueer.\u201d The 1939 MGM film adaptation, starring gay icon Judy Garland, further cemented Dorothy\u2014and Oz\u2014into LGBTQ culture, contributing (somewhat debatedly) to the origin of the term \u201cFriend of Dorothy\u201d as a euphemism for LGBTQ individuals and helping to establish rainbows as a queer symbol.<\/p>\n
The story also inspired the wildly popular musical \u201cWicked,\u201d which reimagines the witches of Oz and is rich with LGBTQ subtext.<\/p>\n
Given all this, it makes perfect sense that an adult LGBTQ book club would choose to start its journey in the fantastical world L. Frank Baum created with Oz.<\/p>\n
Queer Visitors, a book club made for LGBTQIA+ adults and named after a comic strip L. Frank Baum published in 1904 called \u201cQueer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz,\u201d created by Drag Story Hour\u2014a national non-profit whose goals include \u201ccelebrating storytelling through the dynamic art of drag performance\u201d\u2014chose to kick off this new venture with \u201cThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Washington Blade had the chance to speak with Jonathan Hamilt, co-founder of Drag Queen Story Hour, about what the LGBTQ adult book club will entail, why now, and why Oz.<\/p>\n
When asked what spurred the choice to start an adult LGBTQ book club, Hamilt explained that the club has been a long time in the making.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Drag Story Hour\u2019 is celebrating 10 years of stories this year. We\u2019ve always served families and children reading public books\u2026 but we really wanted to expand our programming for an adult-focused book club that was basically a drag story hour for adults only,\u201d Hamilt said.<\/p>\n
For years, the organization has worked to inspire children and promote diversity across the U.S.\u2014and the globe. Now, they are venturing over the rainbow into adult territory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like Oprah\u2019s book club, but gay, where we will have a monthly book club\u2026 with a virtual experience with the drag artist and a subject matter expert of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n
For their first month, Queer Visitors went with drag queen (and face of Queer Visitors) Nana Tuckit from Portland, Ore., and Tori Calamito\u2014a self-described \u201cOz historian\u201d and LGBTQ ally known as \u201cThe Oz Vlog\u201d on social media\u2014to stand alongside the club online.<\/p>\n
\u201cNana Tuckit brings a really fun energy to the space\u2026 and Tori is an Oz historian and can tell us all the things about that world,\u201d Hamilt said when explaining their choice to go with Tuckit and Calamito. \u201cI think the two of them will be a really amazing powerhouse chatting about this book.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calamito and Tuckit both sat down with the Blade to discuss why they chose to partner with Drag Queen Story Hour and Queer Visitors\u2014both going into detail about why \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d is a perfect pick for the first meeting of the book club, explaining that LGBTQ people can see themselves in the story.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018The Wizard of Oz\u2019 at its core, is a story about self-actualization and achieving self-actualization alongside your found family,\u201d Tori Calamito told the Blade. \u201cAnd I think those are themes that the LGBTQIA+ community can really relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n
She sees \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d as a story that resonates universally: \u201cI think it\u2019s a story everyone knows. So no matter where you\u2019re coming from, in society, where you live in the country, where you hail from, everybody can hear Oz and go, \u2018Aha, there\u2019s some sort of association in your memory.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cQueer people are just naturally drawn to those stories where the interesting oddball characters are accepted and welcomed and present and they\u2019re celebrated,\u201d Nana Tuckit said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s important right now to tell people\u2019s stories to understand perspectives that are different\u2026 there is such a huge range of lives people are living.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2019The Wizard of Oz\u2019 is such an interesting cultural capstone\u2026 all generations know \u2018The Wizard of Oz\u2019 in some capacity\u2026 there are so many original books and I think they\u2019re so innately queer if you read between the lines,\u201d Hamilt said. \u201cOne way to look at it: it\u2019s just so campy and so colorful and so fun\u2026 and this idea of queer diaspora\u2026 Dorothy being displaced or in a new land, kind of finding her chosen family\u2026 it\u2019s kind of like an allegory for the whole queer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calamito echoed Hamilt\u2019s points and said her LGBTQ followers\u2014more than 375,000 combined on Instagram and TikTok\u2014helped show her that.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, when I first read the L. Frank Baum original series of Oz books, I didn\u2019t pick up on the very queer, coded themes and the gender fluid themes because reading it through the lens of a straight cis woman\u2014just those things didn\u2019t hit me,\u201d she said. \u201cBut interacting with other folks in the broader [Oz] fandom opened my eyes to how obvious those themes are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we hear stories about those kinds of people [queer], and they aren\u2019t the villains of the story\u2014they aren\u2019t the people who are being scrutinized and condemned or picked apart for those aspects of themselves\u2014I think that\u2019s what gets people so excited,\u201d Tuckit told the Blade. \u201cWe need to create some worlds that are super fun for queer people to experience, because we need to know that we can be the main character, the hero, the savior. We can be all of the good things, the magical things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilt also noted that the childlike wonder the Oz books and story have been able to provide to people for over a century reflects the need to heal their internal child selves.<\/p>\n
\u201cQueer adults have to do a lot of inner child healing\u2026 getting back to the magic of books where the excitement maybe first happened for you\u2026 it brings a lot of joy at face value with this book club that makes you feel like a kid at heart,\u201d Hamilt said.<\/p>\n
Tuckit went on to emphasize how the feeling of community\u2014which has been life-saving for LGBTQ people when families have, and continue to, shun them for coming out\u2014is present throughout the book.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven at the end of the book, The Lion, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman all become the king of their own\u2026 the people have chosen you to be this figure for them, because they know you\u2019re going to be supportive of them and looking out for them,\u201d Tuckit said.<\/p>\n
That community, she explained, can help the reader find what Dorothy was searching for when her house landed in Oz.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I think about what feels like home for me, it\u2019s definitely not necessarily the physical place, but it is about who I\u2019m with and the people that I\u2019ve created my community with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilt also saw the opportunity for book club members to create real-world connections using the club as a goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really easy as an adult to get sucked into your phone or social media\u2026 my hope is that this book club gets a physical book in your hands\u2026 gets you to meet other people that are excited about a really dorky topic\u2026 bring back this idea of real community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The act of drag has long been a community- and family-maker in the LGBTQ world. From ballroom families to the unique feeling of love one can get when watching a truly moving piece of drag, the art form has community woven into its history that adds an additional layer to the complexities of LGBTQ relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrag is starting to represent just more of a wide range of people and experiences, just reflecting what we are as people\u2026 it\u2019s all the same,\u201d Tuckit said. \u201cDrag artists are just expressing that something inside them that they want to get out and show the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI love Drag Story Hour. I take my own daughter, we go to drag brunch. We love drag queens in this household. And it harkens back to classic theater and pantomime in the days of Shakespeare,\u201d the Oz historian said, highlighting that drag has been around for centuries, despite what anti-LGBTQ conservatives say.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe opposition to Drag Story Hour isn\u2019t new. We\u2019ve been around for 10 years, and there\u2019s always been an ebb and flow,\u201d Hamilt explained. \u201cOne common comment we hear from people who are homophobic or transphobic is, \u2018Why do you only read to kids? Why don\u2019t you read to adults?\u2019 And the truth is, we do! We read to elderly people, we go into hospitals\u2014we read to a wide variety of audiences. So, if the issue really is age, we\u2019ve even started side projects just for adults. Will there be protests? Opposition? Pushback when it\u2019s only adult-focused programming? Absolutely. Because it\u2019s never really been about children. It\u2019s about control, hatred, and trying to erase the queer experience altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked what she hopes Queer Visitors brings to all fans of Oz, LGBTQ members, or allies, Calamito said she hopes it helps create good feelings during difficult times for members of the LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope this fosters a safe space for people to have good community outreach,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope this becomes a place where we can dispel fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hamilt, the goal is both playful and proud: \u201cStories are for everybody\u2026 the goal is to celebrate self-expression and imagination through glamorous, playful, proud, queer role models\u2026 the more we love and accept the diversity of the world, it makes us more empathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n