Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an effeminate homosexual who prefers to dress as a woman; sometimes as a professional female impersonator.

1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 8: drag-queen: One who makes a living doing female impersonations in a drag-show, or otherwise appears frequently in drag.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 24: A fat queen drag walking his Afghan hound.
1964		H. Selby Jar. Last Exit to Brooklyn 215: Harry [...] looked more closely at the queens on the floor. He was surprised, though he knew they were men, how much they looked like women.
1965		L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 33: The drag queen said he paid $12 [...] for the sequins alone.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 18: Lovers Lane, the sleeping quarters of the drag queens who were only too willing to spread their wares around.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 53: I wondered [...] whether his experiences with a thirteen year old drag queen had been too much for him.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 197: A bloke. A rotten fuckin’ drag-queen.
1993		(con. 1930s) Kennedy & Davies Boots of Leather (2014) 42: [The police] just [took] the drag queens, the ones that were putting on the show.
1993		D. Jarman diary 17 Jan. Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 295: He is unsure about the make-up, says it makes him look like a drag queen.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 2: That June of ’63 King’s Cross was [...] brothels, hookers, pimps, hoons, charity molls, spruikers, toffs, chats, mooks, lairs, mugs, phizgigs, drag queens, straights, shines, bent cops, [...] tea leaves, neon, glitz.
2000		Guardian Travel 8 Jan. 4: 20 drag queens, 70 dancers and incandescent pyrotechnics.
2000		R.G. Barrett Leaving Bondi (2013) [ebook] Unless I want to chase drag queens round Long Bay [Jail].
2004		J. McCourt ‘Vilja de Tanquay Exults’ in Queer Street 310: I must be a female impersonator / A ’Dilly drag queen on the game.
2010		C. Rawlings-Way Sydney 199/2: Hosted by wonderfully glam drag queens such as Tora Hymen.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 75: Bridget looks like a female bodybuilder — hard boat, drag queen calves.
2015		Baltimore Sun (MD) 3 June T4/2: Give me Drag Queens, give me strippers, give me sass and magic!
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 27: [D]rag queens shopping for extra-long nylons.

2. (also dragster) a female impersonator.

1964		Lavender Lex. n.p.: drag queen: – [...] This term is also used to describe female impersonators.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 125: Most [country dwellers] had never copped a dekko at a real life dragster.

3. in fig. use, as a general insult.

1993

M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 83: To think that these drag queens have been standing in the shadows of fantasy for so long they can no longer see the daylight of reality.