Drag

  When I was in the youth group at Kilbourne Park Baptist Church, some kids wanted to do a mock wedding where the boys would dress like girls, and the girls would dress like boys.  I really didn't see anything wrong with it, because most of the parents approved.  It was going to be like a stage production in Columbia.  Since I was doing theatre at the time at Columbia College, I was getting comfortable on the stage.  The director cast me as a bridesmaid.  

 I asked my mother if I could borrow one of her dresses and her high heels.  She asked why, and I told her about the fake wedding we were going to do.  She didn't seem too keen on the idea, but she knew that back in Shakespeare's time the men took women's parts since women were not allowed on stage.  She said I could do it, if my father approved.  

 Well, my father said absolutely not!  He didn't want his son wearing women's clothes.  My mother tried to talk him out of his decision, but he put his foot down.  I couldn't do it.  I had to tell the others I couldn't be in the "wedding".  A lot of the kids didn't understand, but the director did.  The production went on as planned, but I wasn't allowed to go.  

 This event was before dressing in drag became a thing.  It was church sponsored.  I thought my father should have loosened up a little, but he was a Baptist minister who believed that this event wasn't Biblical.  I bet the other kids had fun, though.