With RuPaul’s DragCon LA set to open today, let’s take a moment to clock those of who came before. Some of the cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 3 are here to give us a brief history of drag’s cultural influences.

Thorgy Thor, Chi Chi DeVayne, BenDeLaCreme, Morgan McMichaels, Kennedy Davenport, Shangela, Trixie Mattel, Milk, and Aja tell Allure magazine when drag became part of popular culture, and remember some fierce queens who helped inspire it’s origins.

“Drag” is a theater term that originated to refer to performers dressing in clothing typically worn by the opposite sex. Chi Chi says, it

“describes the action of long skirts dragging on the stage on the floor.“

(It’s also an acronym: Dressed Resembling A Girl)

Drag made its way into vaudeville in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was the boom of underground gay bars in the 20s and 30s, followed by police crackdowns on the gay community in the 50s and 60s and in ’69, the Stonewall Riots was the start of the modern gay rights movement.

Over those decades, iconic figures have emerged in the drag community like Flawless Sabrina, who Thorgy Thor says,

“organized multiple drag queen pageants across the United States, was arrested numerous times, and even appeared in drag on several talk shows — which was groundbreaking for the time.“

The late Flawless Sabrina, who passed away last year, was celebrated last night in NYC with a tribute at Town Hall produced by Daniel Nardicio, and hosted by drag legend, Linda Simpson. Synchronicity. The Gods and Goddesses of drag must be smiling down today.

Watch.

(Photo, screen grab; via Allure)