LGBT Center hosts their annual, sold out “Gender Bender Drag Show”
Maria Ly
Staff Writer
The show kicked off with the MC of the night, Miss Victoria DeVille, with her humorous introductions and insanely creative numbers.
DeVille made the crowd roar in applause with her lip sync performance of classic Britney Spears songs, such as “Oops I Did it Again”. She made the crowd laugh till their bellies ached with her version of “Beauty of the Beast”, in which she attached a beast like puppet to the back of her head as they performed a duet.
She made the crowd slightly uncomfortable with her hilarious Halloween inspired performance with a demonically altered Ariana Grande song, and “Exorcist” bed with a Regan MacNeil styled costume complete with silly string vomit into the crowd.
Amidst the laughter in the auditorium, DeVille gave an inspiring speech about spreading joy and being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. She said, “We are making noise, we are trying to overcome the oppressors that want to keep us down, and we will continue to do so.”
Other guest performances included Utica Queen, who got creative with props as she stabbed the stage ferociously with a toilet plunger and sprayed the crowd with her spray bottle.
Utica is a unique insane queen who made the audience laugh with her promiscuity as she pulled up her dress to reveal a set of lips on her frontside and a flower in the back.
Besides drag queens, the Gender Bender Drag Show also featured a drag king – Minneapolis’ bodacious beefcake, Damien D’Luxe. Damien wowed the audience with his lip-sync performance of Bruno Mars’ “24K Magic” and Dragon Ball Z inspired costume as he floated on stage on his hoverboard and gave Goku realness.
The show also featured student performances from the Rose Dynasty and Luna Muse. Luna Muse showed her talent as she dressed like The Incredibles infamous character, Edna, and made the crowd laugh with her incredible lip syncing to an Edna inspired remix and stunning choreography.
Princess Blue Rose got the crowd cheering with her hair whipping, stunt pulling, audience engaging performance. Her sister, Luscious Rose, continued to hype the crowd with her lip sync performance of a medley of Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus songs, with “Nobody’s Perfect” and “The Climb”.
Aniyah Rose, the third sister, pulled more stunts in a sexy performance as she leaned against the brick wall on stage before crawling to the front and whipping her hair. Rose jumped into the audience and got close to the students as they stuffed their dollar bills in her cleavage.
The Rose Dynasty then ended their performances with a group performance as they coordinated outfits and choreography. Luna Muse and the Rose Dynasty showed students that drag exists here on campus, and it’s not going anywhere.
Jesse Valentin, the graduate assistant at the LGBT Center, states that shows like the Gender Bender Drag Show allows people to not be afraid of something different from them, “I think when a culture is really heteronormative, it limits people’s perspectives on life, and when people are able to open their eyes to other genders and presentations of gender, generally they become more accepting even if they don’t quite understand it, it then allows them to maybe go to the LGBT Center and meet some folk, or just make new friends, research stuff online, go to drag shows in Minneapolis even.”
Feature photo by Maria Ly | MSU Reporter.