The Drag (play) The Drag (play) The Drag is a dramatic play written by Mae West under her pen name Jane Mast. The play opened in out-of-town tryouts in New Jersey and Connecticut, but was later forced to close for its portrayal of homosexuality and cross-dressing. The play never opened on Broadway, as West had planned. This play was the follow-up to West's highly controversial play "Sex". West claimed that the inspiration behind the play came from the homosexual young men that she knew around that time who, according to her, desperately wanted to be open about their relationships with their male companions.
Obscene Publications Act 1857 of a suspect work to be judged independently of context. If any portion of a work was deemed obscene, the entire work could be outlawed. This interpretation was clearly a major change from Campbell's opinion only ten years before – the test now being the effect on someone open to corruption who obtained a copy, not whether the material was "intended" to corrupt or offend. Cockburn's declaration remained in force for several decades, and most of the high-profile seizures under the Act relied on this interpretation. The Obscene Publications Act 1959 significantly reformed the law related to obscenity, coming into