Students cheered and waved pride flags at the Cal State Fullerton Housing Piazza as dazzling performers took the stage for the university\u2019s free annual drag show Thursday night, an event celebrating creativity, self-expression and LGBTQ+ pride.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hosted by the Losquadro Keller LGBTQ Resource Center in collaboration with Rainbow House, the show provided students with a space to celebrate their identity and community through performances.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Organizers said the event serves as both entertainment and empowerment, encouraging attendees to embrace their individuality while fostering visibility and support for CSUF\u2019s LGBTQ+ community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one event that\u2019s part of National Coming Out Week, in which we do a whole host of events,\u201d said Nat Betancourt Arellano, senior coordinator at the Losquadro Keller LGBTQ Resource Center. \u201cAll of it is really focusing on a diversity of identities, gender, expansive identities, drag, and what does gender mean and what does sexuality mean, and how do we create spaces where we\u2019re inclusive of all the ways that people love and all the ways that people express themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The resource center has received generous donations from alumni and former staff members, allowing for a larger stage, additional chairs, proper lighting and even custom apparel handed out to the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The show became a long-standing CSUF tradition, highlighting its connection to drag history and its ability to bring students together to experience drag culture on campus \u2013 many for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the energy and the creative music and the sets and the costumes and everything, I think that drew people in, even if they\u2019d never heard of drag,\u201d said Nyx Blueford, a fourth-year cinema and television arts major. \u201cI didn\u2019t see a lot of hands raised initially when they asked if anyone had been to a drag event, so I hope this was a great first impression.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five professional drag queens from Divine Entertainment performed on stage, including two CSUF alumni. They were joined by three additional performers, one affiliated with the campus drag club and two who began their drag careers at CSUF.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Performers began the show on stage and eventually made their way into the large, energetic crowd, receiving shouts of excitement and cash tips, which are a staple of audience participation in drag culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat got me into drag was watching, holding my phone recording them, giving them a tip, being like, \u2018Interact with me, interact with me,\u2019 because I just wanted to catch a reaction of me giving them my money,\u201d said drag queen performer Freddie Vamp Deadd. \u201cI went home, and I thought of that interaction that night; I just want to be that interaction that they think of that night before they go to bed.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was a wide variety of queens dressed in Halloween costumes to match the spooky theme. Queens dedicate time and effort to every performance, from applying makeup and rhinestoning outfits to executing captivating choreography while dancing on stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beyond the glitter and performances, the event highlighted how drag can inspire confidence and foster a sense of community on campus. The show\u2019s mix of humor, art and empowerment left attendees with a lasting message about self-expression and inclusivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, a drag show or any LGBTQ+ event can help not just for myself as queer, but for everyone else who is maybe afraid to come out as themselves authentically,\u201d said Kelley Phan, a fifth-year linguistics major. \u201cEveryone should be surrounded in a safe space for everyone, just so that they can be themselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students cheered and waved pride flags at the Cal State Fullerton Housing Piazza as dazzling performers took the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2432,1043,2434,2435,2433],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-drag","tag-event","tag-lgbtq","tag-queen","tag-queer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}