What is the difference between a drag queen and a transvestite?

Answer 1

There is a huge difference between cross-dressers and transsexual people. However, transgender is an umbrella term which includes cross-dressers, transsexuals, feminine men, masculine women, and everyone in-between.

Cross-dressing is when you are a guy who wants to be a guy but wears women's clothing or a woman who wants to be a woman but wear men's clothing. The dressing is part-time and not all the time. You can be either gay or straight but most male cross-dressers are straight, while most female cross-dressers are lesbian or bisexual.

Transgender is an umbrella term for anyone who does not fit the binary (male/female) gender system. You may be born female and feel a little more male, or male and feel a bit more female, or either gender and feel in-between. You might dress as this gender part of the time or simply reflect it through your behavior. It is thought to be caused by a hormone imbalance during birth thus causing you to have a brain wired for a gender different from your physical sex.

Some transgender people identify as transsexual and opt to dress and live full-time as their preferred gender. Some may take hormones and get surgeries to help them "pass" as their preferred gender.

Answer 2

In most cases a drag queen is gay. Most transvestites are not. A drag queen is often a gay male who is making social commentary or satire about femininity by over-feminizing themselves. RuPaul (one of the best known drag queens is quoted as saying " I do not impersonate women. How many women do you know who march around in 7-inch heels, 3-foot wigs and skin-tight outfits?"

Most transvestites dress conservatively, are straight and a large number are married.