The University welcomed three professional drag queens to campus last Friday, March 6 as the All Lifestyles Included club presented Drag Show 2015: Candyland.
The All Lifestyles Included club, or ALI, is an organization that strives to promote awareness for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning, or LGBTQ, community on and around campus. One of the ways they do this is by holding their annual drag show. This year, the club went all out.
“This year’s drag show was a lot of fun to plan,” said Melissa Galvin, a senior psychology and sociology double major, as well as the president of ALI. “We chose to go with a candyland theme, and the queens really got into it.” The queens were not the only ones who really got into it. Anacon was transformed into a candy heaven. Giant, candy-shaped lights were reflected up onto the walls, snacks such as candy, cookies, and brownies lined the room’s perimeter, and a cotton candy machine filled the space with a sweet smell. To top it all off, big pieces of fake candy decorated the huge, brightly-lit stage where the queens made themselves at home.
Three professional drag queens were showcased at the event: Danza Milian, Jadé, and Yuhua Hamasaki. This year, two of the queens came all the way from the Big Apple. “I found Yuhua and Jadé from New York City,” said Melissa Rance, a junior biology student and vice president of ALI. It was Rance’s job to hire the queens. “Although we usually use the same local people, they [Jade and Hamasaki] turned out to be the best part of the night,” she continued. The queens danced to two songs each, and even jumped off the stage at points to involve the audience. “I Kissed a Girl” and “Single Ladies” were definitely big crowd-pleasers. 
Throughout the show there were raffle drawings for $25 Visa gift cards and $15 Applebee’s gift cards. Then, two male students were selected from the audience to participate in a dance-off while dressed in drag. This portion was yet another crowd favorite.
The party did not end when the show was over. After their performances, the drag queens hung out after the show to dance around and were happy take pictures with audience members.
“This is my fourth year at Monmouth. I’m pleased to come back and see new faces and see ALI pushing forward with their movement,” explained Milian. “We’re all human. I look forward to next year.” Jadé described her experiences as a drag queen and at the University as “thrilling” and “astounding.”
Galvin felt that this year’s show was extremely successful. “While it’s [the drag show] always difficult to plan, ALI’s bigger membership this year really helped,” she said. “The show ran a lot more efficiently and the club’s presence on campus was better recognized this year than in the past, making the event bigger and better than years past.”
At the start of the event, it was announced that the show had raised $997. By the end of the show, it had broken $1000. All of this money was donated to The Trevor Project. According to Galvin, The Trevor Project is an organization dedicated to assisting suicidal LGBTQ youth. As stated on thetrevorproject.org, “Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award-winning short film TREVOR, The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning young people ages 13-24.”
PHOTOS COURTESY of Jess Anastasio
