Philippine drag culture is on the rise, but will it usher in LGBTQ acceptance?

It’s Saturday morning at Butterboy, a popular cafe in Metro Manila’s Quezon City, and it is buzzing with excitement.

Performers in elaborate costumes emerge one by one, lip-synching to pop stars like Beyoncé and Ariana Grande, cheered on by patrons enjoying coffee instead of cocktails.

Opened a couple of years ago, Butterboy is well-known for its flaky croissants, but lately it has become famous for something else: its drag brunches.

Owner Hilder Demeterio said since he introduced drag events in 2022, Butterboy has drawn in an increasingly diverse crowd of customers. “We get families, groups of aunts and grandmothers, and even straight couples looking for unconventional dates,” he said.

Once confined to nightclubs, drag shows are slowly entering mainstream Philippine culture, with local reality programmes such as Drag Den and Drag Race Philippines – the local version of US series RuPaul’s Drag Race – allowing drag artists to expand their reach beyond queer spaces.

Some brands have latched on to the shows’ commercial appeal. In November, McDonald’s Philippines ran an advertising campaign featuring Drag Race Philippines host Paolo Ballesteros and comedian Vice Ganda eating fried chicken in drag. Local drag star Marina Summers also made headlines earlier this month for becoming the first Filipino to take part in RuPaul’s Drag Race: UK vs The World.

While such developments suggest drag queens may be on the cusp of receiving acceptance from a culturally conservative, Catholic-majority public, queer advocates argue there is still a long way from true equality.

The popularity of drag queens indicates the Philippines is moving past portrayals of gay characters as punchlines and sources of comic relief, as was prevalent in the 1980s and