Gay Straight Alliance brings drag show to Southeast

Southeast Missouri State University's student organization Gay Straight Alliance is continuing to challenge gender stereotypes with their annual drag show.

Daniel Eckert, president of GSA, said that the purpose of this event is to educate the students about what drag really is and to show them that the performers are normal people.

"I want [the students] to know that, just because these people seem strange, they're really not," Eckert said. "They're really just having fun and showing off what they love to do. It's nothing to be scared of or to fear. It's really just a fun experience as if you went to a bar and saw people dancing within the club. That's pretty much all it is. I really hope they get out of it that these are people just like anybody else."

Becca Bell, secretary and treasurer for GSA, said the first drag show she attended was at Southeast. She said that by seeing what drag is and how much effort the entertainers put into their performance has taught her to appreciate drag more.

To prepare for the event, GSA received funding from Dollars for Innovative Campus Events and the Student Government Association for decorations and to help fund the performers. GSA has also designed flyers, created pamphlets to hand out to attendees that will explain what drag is and decided on who the performers will be.

Despite being held during homecoming week, Eckert believes that the event will still turn out a lot of students.

"Luckily, last year it happened on the same day that Tony LaRussa came in for the speaker series and we still had a huge turnout for that," Eckert said. "So I'm hoping that the same thing will happen this year."

In past years, the show has been more focused on drag queens. This year's event will have a more diverse group of performers that includes both drag kings, which are women dressing as men and drag queens, which are men dressing as women. There are three drag kings and five drag queens set to perform.

"A lot of people, when they think of drag shows, it's always the very extreme drag queens with the large makeup," Bell said. "Drag kings are a very different kind of side of it. People always picture the men dressing up as women, but not really the women dressing up as men. So it's kind of a different perspective, which is equally showing students what drag is about."

Michael Rockafellow, also known as "Butterscotch," will be this year's master of ceremonies for the show. Rockafellow has been a performer in Southeast's drag shows for the past several years.

One way Rockafellow will educate the students about drag is by performing to Lady Gaga's "Born this Way." Rockafellow has done this number before, and said it allows him to completely transform himself for the audience.

"I went from being Butterscotch to being Michael, and the crowd seemed to really be touched by it, because I just made myself very vulnerable on stage," Rockafellow said. "So, I've thought about doing that."

Rockafellow hopes that his performance will inspire students to be comfortable with who they are.

"Me being a drag queen, I've been through a lot, just personally as a boy and then as a drag queen," Rockafellow said. "So I want something that can really just touch people and make them just see everything."

The show will be held at 7 p.m. on Oct. 24 in the University Center ballrooms A and B. Admission is free to the public.