An ordinary Saturday night in the RSC turned into something queer on Nov. 15. That night, Spectrum held its third annual drag pageant in Beggs Ballroom with performers Byongae, Tolu Storm, Bailey Seer and Saturn Starz stealing hearts and breaths from the audience throughout the show.
“I thought it was a lot of fun. I was really, really happy with how it turned out because this usually tends to be like a much smaller show and usually we only get a lot of Spectrum members themselves,” said Spectrum president Genesis Merriett. “We had a huge variety of people, and we actually hit, I think, 83 people in attendance.”
This is a big jump in attendance compared to past years, where there have been around 30 to 40 people in attendance at the shows, according to Merriett.
“I think it really creates a really nice and inclusive space on campus, and also just like a space where people can be more relaxed with who they are,” Merriett said. “For the performers obviously they are the people that are really expressing their identity out there, they’re really putting themselves out there with all the details.”
Spectrum is a club that provides a space for LGBTQ+ members, as well as allies. Merriett said this is the third year Spectrum has held the fall drag pageant.
By the end of the show, the judges chose Seer as the winner, and they were rewarded with the largest gift basket.
“I’m so thankful for the opportunity to be at a school where students are allowed to express themselves freely and not only allowed but encouraged,” Seer said.
In extravagant makeup, Seer’s performance to Mommy Long Legs’s “Sorority Girls” was one to remember with many audience members cheering them on throughout. The loudest applause came when Seer duckwalked down an aisle in the ballroom.
“During the runway show, I was nauseous,” Seer said. “I almost actually left early because I was really thinking I was going to throw up, but after that the nerves passed, I felt great.”
Having shown up at 3:30 p.m., Seer said it took them three and a half hours to get ready for the performance.
Alongside performers prepping their looks, Spectrum volunteers worked hard to plan the event for that evening.
“We actually planned it in a very short amount of time, we were kind of stressing a little bit,” Merriett said. “We were worried we weren’t going to get as many people but this, I think, has turned out to be one of the best shows that we’ve had so far … a month and a half is like ideal planning. We did it in two weeks.”
Merriett said that the spring drag show, a collaboration between Student Activities Council and Student Engagement and Belonging, typically gains more attention than the Spectrum pageant. They said that it will look slightly different next year due to new state regulations. State dollars can not go into anything Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, related such as drag shows and Spectrum gets funding from SGA which comes from student fees.
“The audience watching, they kind of get an experience of like, ‘Wow there are some people out here that are really giving it their all, (and) putting theirselves into everything,’” Merriett said. “I think it can inspire people to do the same themselves.”
