Happy queer Christmas! Drag kings and queens on their festive spectaculars

LGBTQ+ performers are making sure that queerness isn't swept under the carpet' this Christmas - and providing community, fun and celebration for audiences

Drag king Mark Anthony loves Christmas. He always has - it's a big thing in his family. Still, he says he found his Christmas blighted slightly" in recent years since coming out as transgender and non-binary. It wasn't a big sob story of rejection," Anthony, whose family fully accepts him for who he is, explains. It was a discomfort type thing, from both sides, where you're trying to work out how you fit into a different role. By this point, we're pretty much adjusted now." (Out of drag, Anthony, performed by Isaac Williams, uses the pronouns they and them.)

Anthony knows how Christmas might have quite negative associations" for those LGBTQ+ people who don't feel they can be authentically themselves at home with their families". It is a time that puts a spotlight on anything that's changed and makes it feel really kind of awkward", for example, if someone has come out about their sexuality or gender identity.