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Drag Show 2007 aims to provide more education

Skits and lip-syncs break down barriers

By Alexa
Dijulio

Issue date: 5/3/07 Section: Scene
Originally
published: 5/3/07 at 12:13 AM PST
Last update: 5/3/07 at 12:12 AM PST

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May GASPED and GALA have your attention, ladies and
gentlemen -- or ladies dressed as gentlemen -- or gentlemen dressed as ladies?
The 6th annual Santa Clara Drag Show will be breaking down gender stereotypes
left and right, say participants and organizers, tomorrow, May 4, at 8 p.m. in
the California Mission Room.

Downstairs Benson Center will be
transformed into an eccentric staging area full of students dressed in drag.
Along with the usual lip-syncs and dances, there will be some new elements that
organizers hope might make you think.

Representatives from Gay &
Straight People for the Education of Diversity and Gay and Lesbian Alliance, as
well as from Santa Clara Community Action Program, say they have worked hard to
ensure that this year's show incorporates more elements of education about the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual/two-spirited and
queer/questioning communities. This year, skits and interviews about the history
of transgender prejudice that will be incorporated into the show.

Though
James Servino, program coordinator of GASPED, said Santa Clara has a history of
support for the LGBTQ community, the support is not absolute. "Santa Clara
students are aloof to this community unless they actually know and associate
with a gay or lesbian person," he said.

Servino said the LGBTQ community
at Santa Clara seems to have more outward support from women. Servino said the
Drag Show needs more male straight allies to help the show continue with success
in the future.

Last spring after the Drag Show, three hate e-mails were
sent to SCCAP, the overseer of GASPED. The e-mails were never officially
reported to the university because the responses were not the first of their
kind since the Drag Show began, were not physically threatening, and were not
aimed at a specific person. However, the e-mails sparked a panel discussion
sponsored by SCAAP.

Servino hopes that the showing at this year's panel,
which will be held on Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Williman Room in Benson, will
be larger thanks to the educational skits that will intertwined with the
performances.

Mairead Burke, a senior in the communication and women and
gender studies departments who has helped plan the show, sees the shock-value of
the performances as a great way to attract people to the Drag Show, which
ultimately showcases a community that is often overlooked.

The
exhilaration that comes from viewing a show like this often is a product of
Burke's mentioned shock-value, especially at a Jesuit university. Emory Lynch,
senior out-going director of SCCAP and member of GASPED, wants to make sure that
this shock acts as a means for breaking stereotypes down instead of reinforcing
them.

Max Voltage, who is responsible for starting the Drag Show at
Santa Clara, said to performers, "Take risks, push boundaries, challenge your
audience. But also, find that line to walk, between risky art and oppressive
crap," in an essay written for The Third National Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgender & Ally Conference for Jesuit Colleges.

The conference,
which was hosted at Santa Clara last summer, is held for Jesuit universities to
facilitate discussion and action within the LGBTQ communities. According to
Voltage, if performers, or "stars," as they are referred to in planning
meetings, are successful, they will empower both men and women without demeaning
either gender with sexist or oppressive stereotypes.

"Homophobia is
really tied to sexism," said Servino.

Prizes will be awarded to those who
show up in drag, but no pressure -- attendance by those who do not wish to work
it from the other side is equally encouraged.

Peter Keating, a junior
GASPED member who is involved in the planning of the show, said, "You will get
as much out of this as you wish to get." Regardless, performers will be breaking
it down -- in more ways than one -- to Justin Timberlake, Shakira and many, many
more.

Contact Alexa Dijulio at [email-masked]

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Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 4

Cathy Dawson

posted 5/10/07 @ 9:57 AM EST

Isn't this inconsistent with the school's Catholic identity? The Church
teaches that homosexual sex is a grave sin.

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