Our definitions of gender and the expectations that come with it have been based on incorrect assumptions for a very long time. Your sex, or your biological gender, was believed to identify your preferred gender correctly, and whichever one you were assigned came with a restrictive list of “do’s” and “do not’s.”

As the modern LGBT movement gained momentum around the turn of the century, however, more gay men and lesbian women began to play around with their gender expression. Once thought to be fixed at birth, gender has become a fluid and self-determined concept. This is thanks in large part to gender illusionists, or drag performers.

The term “drag” is an acronym that stands for “dressed as girl.” Drag queens, unlike transgender and non-binary individuals, sometimes are cisgender men who remain comfortable in their own gender expression while dressing up as members of the other gender for entertainment or for their profession.

Drag queens have played an important role in the U.S. LGBT movement. The Stonewall Riots in New York City were sparked in part by the actions of drag queens Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson. Rivera, a strong voice for the marginalized, was known for fighting against the exclusion of transgender individuals in New York’s Sexual Orientation Non-discrimination Act. She once threw pennies at the police when they raided gay bars. Johnson led the rebellion for three days.

Rupaul Andre Charles, a world-renowned drag queen, continued the push for drag in mainstream culture in the 1990s. In 1997, he hosted his talk show on the VH1, welcoming guests such as Cher and Diana Ross.

In 2009, Rupaul’s Drag Race premiered, which further added drag culture into the American consciousness. The show, which features drag performers vying for the title of “America’s Next Drag Superstar,” is one of the most popular reality TV shows on the Logo channel today. That popularity has enabled the show to spread positive messages, both about drag and society as a whole.

If you know the definitions of the terms “slay,” “throwing shade,” “reading to filth” or “serving fish,” all then there’s a good chance you either watch Rupaul’s Drag Race or have a friend who has. Anytime you hear someone shout a celebratory “YAAASSS” you can know they probably learned the drag queen-originated lingo from Rupaul’s Drag Race.

Still, the most important result of Rupaul’s Drag Race is that Americans, the majority of who might never meet a drag performer, can learn what queens are really like. Much of the show focuses on the contestants emotional struggles as drag queens. It humanizes a group who is often the target of vitriol and discrimination.

Rupaul believes everyone should learn to appreciate drag because, by expressing ourselves, we are all drag queens.

“Whatever you proclaim as your identity here in the material realm is also your drag,” Rupaul once said. “You are not your religion. You are not your skin color. You are not your gender, your politics, your career or your marital status. You are none of the superficial things that this world deems important. The real you is the energy force that created the entire universe.”