Local drag community explore the meaning of Pride month – The Daily Toreador

The celebration of Pride monthhighlights the LGBTQ+ community and honors the pioneers of LGBTQ+ rights. This month emphasizes the voices of themovement and paves the way for future generations ofLGBTQ+ groups.

Members of the Lubbock drag community spoke on the LGBTQ+ community in Lubbock and what Pridemeans as a drag queen.

Yeah, in Lubbock, it's really great, Brady Collings, also known as drag queen Maggot, a graduate art student from Tylersaid. I started drag six years ago in the Denton-Dallas area. It wasn't terriblebut you can tell that thing progressed and its very kind of surprising to find a city in Texasthat's so accepting and so open to this. Because what I do isn't necessarily what some of the other kind of queens do; the way that I presentmy body, I do not like to really remove hair and stuff like that. I kind of gota little bit of flackand pushback when I started somewhere else. Coming to Lubbock and everyone just being so embracing, it'sbeen amazing.

Maggot finds inspiration from David Lynch films with her drag aesthetic.

Collings saidcombining hisart as a student and drag as a performer creates an authentic performance and allows him to convey a unique perspective on drag shows.

Yeah, so much of the art that I have been making within the last two, three years has been intertwined with drag,"Collings said. It is an interesting little balancing act because I am getting to, at one end, talk about drag in a way that is within like academic terms and approaching it more from like a theoretical aspect. I think it's been a nice balance because if I were to not be doing the performing as well, I think some of the talking and theorizing about it would feel a little disingenuous. But I think I need both of them to kind of comfortably pursue both things.

Drag queen and Texas Tech graduate student Maggot displays her unique artistry in full drag.

The exposure of drag in mainstream media creates a standard of drag that he hopes to break out of with his art, Collings said. Implementing emotional performance into his shows gave him an advantage in standing out and being true to himself as a drag queen and a student.

I think that there has always been a long history of drag being kind of emotional and such but just within the last couple of years with drag race and all of that, that wasn't the kind of drag that was forefront in the mainstream media, Collingssaid. "Andfor me, I could move around, but I can't really like dance like some of these other girls too. So, it was a way to combine kind of things that I was interested in already. I have aBFA in studio artfrom the University of Texas at Tyler and I am doing my Master's in painting right now at Tech. I took some aspects I was already interested in within art history and kind of mashed them together with drag to celebrate more of the subversive aspects of drag."

Ruben Torres,dragpersonaReddRoulette, isa local performer in Lubbock nightclubs. Torres said the support from the community outweighs the negativity that drag performers are often confronted with in a relatively conservative city.

Oh, we definitely get backlash,but to me, it doesn't even matter, Torressaid. "Because for me, I can get 101 negative messages, but the one person that is there supporting me showing me love, they're taking the time out of their lives, that they'll never get back to spending their money that they worked hard for. I'm there to give them the show."

Redd Roulette poses in a local nightclub where she hosts the weekend drag shows.

Torres describes his transition as a retail manager to his persona Redd Roulette as a transformation into confidence and artistry that is emphasized through his drag.

It'sdefinitely astruggle. I'ma retail manager so typically, I'm getting off like six, seven o'clock. I get home and I lay outwhat I'mgoing to wear, what I'm going to do and start listening to my music. I start doing my makeup and by the time my makeup is done with--I'm fulfilling my fantasy already," Torres said. "I'm likeshe's here, the dolls here and if you ever do your makeup with me and see that I spend at least an hour and a half in front of the makeup mirror just looking at myself. Just like 'oh my god, she's pretty.'

As a young gay kid, Torres said watching drag queens and seeing the confidence exhibited in their performances inspired him to push himself to follow the same path and become a drag queen.

Local performer Redd Roulette sits down for a conversation about what Pride month means as a drag queen.

From being one myself, I watched queens before I started doing drag. Torressaid. "I used to sneak in as a minor and have friends pick me up over the gate so I could watch the shows. I really just kind of adored everything they did, and they always had like the same kind of like confidence, it wasmagic that came out of it. I told myself one day, I'm going tobe in that same position. I just happened to push myself to make that come true.

Alazae MoNy, real name Michael Hicks-Piedra, a visiting drag performer from Hobbs, New Mexico, said communicating to the younger LGBTQ+ generation that they have support from the drag community is important in spreading positivity between one another.

I think my message would be don't wait till it's too late to fully embrace who you are. Hicks-Piedra said. If you need somebody to help, don't hesitate to reach out to me or anybody else that is part of the LGBTQI+ community because more than likely, everybody's willing to help, especially drag queens. They're the top tier of the queer community. We're the face of it all. And we want everybody to feel the love and success and the positivity that is surrounded the LGBTQI plus community

Alazae MoNey visits Lubbock from New Mexico to perform in drag shows.

Hicks-Piedra said the current drag representation and shift into a more progressive society gives more opportunities and resources to the current youth compared to the past.

It took me since I was 14 years old to finally start understanding, no matter what you do people are going to love you, especially the ones that are around you daily, Hicks-Piedrasaid. "Ifyou need somebody to be there for you, there are always people to reach out to. I wish I would have understood that. A lot of kids nowadays do not understand that. There aremore resources nowadays than there were whenever we were growing up being those little queer kids sitting in the back of the class, quietly trying to just blend in and get through the day. Just because you are in this small crappy town, does not mean that you cannot be you. And it took me a while to learn that

Pride month is a time to be proud of who you are and drag allows him to feel empowered as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Hicks-Piedra said.

To me, it's about embodying everything that I can embody; embodying the confidence, the power, any vibe that you can give as a gay man in a conservative town, Hicks-Piedrasaid. "Itis more of being proud of who you are. Not everybody gets that opportunity to be who they trulyare. Thatis something that I wish that I had learned a long time ago. Be proud of who you are because you cannot change it. There is a ton of people that love every aspect of you, no matter what you do. That is amazing."

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Local drag community explore the meaning of Pride month - The Daily Toreador