Desmond is Amazing - a 10-year-Old "Drag Kid"

This is amazing...



I love how:

supportive Desmond's parents are of him being him.

confident he is in loving what he's doing, and who he is.

it's a window into how drag can be empowering.

I'm also struck (as I always am when watching RuPaul's Drag Race) at the mentoring element of Drag, and how for earlier generations, drag has sometimes been a way of finding family when a drag performer's own family of origin wasn't on board... For Desmond, with parents who are so supportive, it's like he'll have two families.

And that's something to celebrate!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

p.s. - thanks to my husband for sharing this with me, so I could share it with you...

Bullying on RuPaul's Drag Race: The Difference Between Team Spirit and Bullying

So once again I find myself going totally fan-boy over RuPaul's Drag Race, season 3.

I love RuPaul's mentoring of the younger drag queens (as I've talked about in the past) and mostly, I love her kind spirit and wise sayings, like

"If you can't love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else? Can I get an Amen in here?"

And I pretty much always say "Amen," or "That's right" or "Um-Hm!" right back at the TV when she says it.

But this season, amidst all the regular cattiness of a reality show where they eliminate a different contestant every week, there's been a disturbing clique thing happening that I feel has crossed the line from YAY us! to Boo them!

And that's really upsetting.

If you watch the show, you probably know I'm talking about how some of the contestants are referring to themselves as "the Heathers" - and they fancy themselves prettier and more talented and more popular than the group of other drag queens, who the Heathers refer to as "the boogers."

Now I know it might be nothing more in terms of intent than building team spirit, but I strongly feel that we in the GLBTQ community need to be clear about this:

Bullying is when people put down others to make themselves feel higher. But that's a false equation, and the only way you can really feel better about yourself is for who you are and what you do.

Raja (a "Heather")

As much as I admire Raja's sense of gender-bending style and approaching drag like art, I cringe when she pulls out the verbal knives and comes off as, well... a bully.

Delta Work (a "Heather")

And Delta Work was interviewed in the March 17, 2011 edition of Florida's gay Hot Spots magazine and when asked who she hopes wins says, "GOD I HOPE HEATHER MAKES IT."

Manila Luzon (a "Heather")

There are minorities on both sides of the Heather/Not-Heather divide, but to me it feels mean spirited and frankly a touch racist. Am I being too sensitive?

Alexis Mateo (not a "Heather")

Yara Sophia (not a "Heather")

Shangela (not a "Heather")

Maybe it's just that I'm hoping that "America's Next Drag Superstar" has a bit of that same wisdom and graciousness I see in RuPaul - not that she can't be sassy, but she's never a bitch.

I'm gonna keep on watching, but I gotta say, I'm hoping for some more kindness to be added to the mix. Because in my book, that's the magic quality of a real Queen.

What do you think? Are the Heathers just up for themselves, or are they being bullies?

Namaste,
Lee

ps - You can watch episodes of the show here and decide for yourself!

Queer Teen Poetry: RuPaul goes Poetic for National Poetry Month (Words To Live By From A Drag Diva)

"What other people think of me is none of my business."

- RuPaul

It may not rhyme, but those 11 words are pretty profound.

When I heard RuPaul say this for the first time on her TV show (RuPaul's Drag Race) I ran to write it down. And now she has a new book out, "Workin' It! RuPaul's Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style" in which SHE wrote it down for us.

And the empowering spirit behind those words? THAT'S poetic.

Thanks, Ru!

Celebrating RuPaul during Black History Month Can Be Dangerous for Your Job. A Homophobia Smack-Down!

Okay, let me explain why I'm all mad, and then you can join me in my righteous indignation, or tell me I'm wrong...

So here's this from the LA Times:

Three teachers at a South Los Angeles elementary school have been suspended for allegedly encouraging students to celebrate O.J. Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul for Black History Month, officials said Wednesday.

Children at Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School were carrying pictures of the men at a parade Friday on the school playground, said Los Angeles Unified School District spokeswoman Gayle Pollard-Terry. She said Supt. Ramon C. Cortines learned about the incident Tuesday and had the teachers, who are white, pulled from their classrooms pending an investigation.

The suspension is without pay for the first three days.

“The superintendent believes there are better choices,” she said.

Other students were carrying pictures of President Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Okay, are you mad yet?

As if that wasn't infuriating enough, get this:

"I just can’t fathom what these teachers were thinking of except to make a mockery of African American history,” said Leon Jenkins, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

One parent said that he didn't mind the inclusion of Rodman and Simpson, saying that even though they were fallen heroes, they had been heroes. But including RuPaul?

"That alone, to me, qualifies for a suspension."

And in an editorial that made me cringe, "The wrong history lesson; Common sense went out the window when three teachers demeaned Black History Month," the LA times wrote:

And it's not as though RuPaul isn't worthy of regard, but the tender years of elementary school are not the time for introducing the modern complications of cross-dressing and gender identification.

Putting aside the controversy over the inclusion of Dennis Rodman and OJ Simpson, I need to focus here on what in the world are they upset about with including RuPaul?

Is it solely that she's a drag queen? Does that, by definition, make her a BAD role model?


The most recent update in the news on this is that the teachers won't be fired, they'll be transferred to other schools.

Which of course, led some Black Religious leaders to lament that

"That exposes other children to the racist teachers."

So celebrating RuPaul makes you RACIST???

RuPaul

RuPaul is an AMAZING role model. She's re-defined what's possible for a man in drag - she became a drag queen supermodel! A makeup spokesmodel. An author with a new book out (Workin' It!) A best-selling pop star. She even has her own TV show - now in it's second season!

All this from a thin black boy who had a dream.

I think that's pretty role-model-worthy, and you don't have to want to dress up in a dress to celebrate that.

I can admire someone as a role model without wanting to be just like them. (I can see President Obama as a role model without my wanting to run for public office!)

But maybe that's the point of the school district's action. Maybe the school district and the NAACP are afraid that allowing kids to celebrate RuPaul will be telling kids it's okay to be queer? Well guess what? It IS okay to be queer!

Hear that, students?

So yeah, bring on the RuPaul photos to celebrate Black History Month every year! 'Cause RuPaul is fierce, and we - no matter what color we are, or how gender conforming or non-conforming we are, or who we're attracted to - should celebrate her!

And that's my homophobia smack-down.


Namaste,
Lee

RuPaul Crowns the winner of her "Drag Race" (No Spoilers) ...And how it's about more than a reality show: It's about Mentoring.

So last night it all came down to

BEBE ZAHARA BENET

NINA FLOWERS

and REBECCA GLASSC*CK

in the finale of RuPaul's Drag Race.

And I sat there watching this latest iteration of the "reality" TV show, fascinated to see who would win the crown.

As the finale wound to it's ultimate beauty pageant apex, with a rhinestone tiara giving an additional 18" in stature to the winner, I found myself getting goosebumps.

That was unexpected.

And it was because of what RuPaul said at that moment.

...I pass the reins on to you, my dear. It will be your job to spread the love, the message, the beauty of being the next drag superstar.

And suddenly, I understood the show on a mythic level. RuPaul was passing the crown. An Empress selecting her successor as a Drag Diva Super Star of the world.

It wasn't so much RuPaul going into retirement, but acknowledging the facts - she ain't no ingenue anymore.

It's a transition many of us in our youth-obsessed culture, especially in the Gay (GLBTQ) community, fail to make.

There are 40 and 50 year olds still acting like they're 22, still thinking that the be-all and end-all of life is clubbing and how hot you look and landing the next hot conquest.

And I found myself really excited that here, in this world that I really know so little about,

this world of drag queens and divas, of men trying to get at the heart of what is beauty, grace, and poise, of men wielding the magic of gender to make us all pause and think - and entertain us as well -

that here in this world, perhaps, is a better understanding of the role of the tribal elder, and the generational interconnectedness we need as human beings.

And I realized, on this meta level, that it's what works for me (and millions of others) about the show "American Idol," and why I love how gushy and crazy Paula Abdul is as a judge - it's a passing-on of the reins there, too. Paula and Simon and Randy and Kara and the millions of us voting are finding the new generation - and through a grueling initiation - will crown one as the next Queen or King of Pop.

I see now that Reality TV has become the new "initiation" ritual in our ritual-starved culture, an initiation from one stage of life to another that many of us never experience ourselves - we only watch others go through their initiations, their passages. But we're human, and on some deep level inside each of us, we crave this acknowledgment of passing, of growing, of maturing.

What RuPaul did last night was not only crown a new "Queen," but cast herself in a new role, of mentor. She cast herself in the new role of a beautiful and powerful older "woman," passing on her knowledge, and happy to see a younger generation claim their place on the world stage.

And there, in the land of fakeness (for what could be "faker" than a man dressed up in pounds of makeup and fake boobs in a glittering dress, six inch heels, and a gigantic wig?) - there was something true and real: the answer to our botox injected, face peeled, and youth-obsessed adults of today.

It's something I didn't expect to learn from a 6 and a half foot tall drag queen with a wig the size of a Vespa.



As Ru said at the end of this finale:

"My Queen. Remember, If you can't love yourself - how you gonna love somebody else? Now walk!"

Amen, Ru. Amen.