
Drag Queens and Kings open up about how their acts have helped shape their sexual and gender identity.
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How does drag shape your LGBTQ identity?
UK Drag Race queens Crystal, Vinegar Strokes and Drag King Adam All have shared how their wider identities have been shaped by their drag acts.
In a video discussing the evolving nature of drag, in large part thanks to RuPaul’s drag race popularising drag into the mainstream, the performers share intimate stories about their journey with drag.
In recent years, there’s no denying drag has skyrocketed into the mainstream. From what once started out as a faction of queer subculture has now become a global industry, in no small part to shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, which have allowed everyone an insight into this wonderfully queer form of self-expression.
And whilst we all love a good lip-sync over a drag brunch, drag’s roots are firmly embedded in queer history, as a form of protest and ultimately empowerment.
For the drag performers themselves, the art form is a fundamental part of their queer identity.
This video is a taster ahead of National Student Pride’s 15th-anniversary event this weekend, we which will celebrate queerness in all its glorious forms, with show-stopping performances and appearances from some of the UK’s very best drag artists including Cheryl Hole, Vinegar Strokes and Baga Chipz. The weekend will also feature two headline panel discussions on hot topics in the LGBTQ+ community: Womxn: Carving Out Space and Sexual Health in Association with Attitude Magazine. Throughout the event, expect some more onstage shows from singer-songwriter and rapper GIRLI, and non-binary drag queen Glamrou. And, a headline interview with Lady Phyll co-founder of UK Black Pride, and Dustin Lance Black hosted by BBC’s Evan Davis.
In this exclusive video shot by National Student Pride and media partner Attitude Magazine, we get up close and personal with three drag performers to discover first-hand how the art of drag has been integral to their queer journey and helps informs their identity, both in and out of drag.
«It was like a light coming on», says Drag King Adam All.
«It was like suddenly I made sense, suddenly I fit somewhere. And I felt so much more like a human being».
«I think it’s about being able to express masculinity or male-ness I have naturally in myself that I have to dampen down to fit in more in society. It’s about releasing that to its extreme».
«I’ve made some changes this week actually, by deed poll. I’m Mx on everything now».
Adam’s drag is just one example of how drag has helped them find a form of acceptance within themselves.
«Drag has given me access to parts of me that I might never have discovered before», says drag queen Crystal, who most recently starred in the first UK series of Ru Paul’s Drag Race on the BBC:
«When you dress up and present yourself in a certain way that you suddenly become able to live as that character in a different way. When you dress up in that character enough times, eventually you can do that without all the costumes, and you live that fully realised version of yourself».
Ultimately, drag allows us all to enjoy a world in which society’s gender stereotypes are broken down. As Crystal puts it:
«Drag really highlights how arbitrary the rules are that society places on gender. Doing drags helps you realise that actually the boundaries between male and female are much less rigid than we would like to believe as a society».
National Student Pride takes place 21st – 23rd February at the University of Westminster Marylebone Campus, G-A-Y Heaven and G-A-Y Late. For the latest information including the line-up and to get your ticket, visit www.studentpride.co.uk