Drag queens are performers - usually gay men, sometimes transgendered women - who dress in "drag," clothing associated with the female gender, usually highly exaggerated versions thereof. Drag queens often do drag to perform, singing or lip-syncing and dancing, participating in events such as gay pride parades, cabarets, discotheques, and other celebrations and venues.

Female-bodied people who perform in usually exaggerated men's clothes and personae are called drag kings, though this term has a wider meaning than drag queen. More rarely and only recently, female-bodied people have also started to perform as queens.

Drag is a part of Western gay culture - drag queens fought at the Stonewall riots in June 1969, and drag shows are traditional at pride parades. Prominent drag queens in the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) community of a city often serve as official or unofficial spokespersons, fund-raisers, chroniclers, or community leaders.

Non-western cultures have traditions similar to drag, often existing among their LGBT communities; the western notion of drag is also becoming more common in non-western LGBT communities.