People of Georgian: Student uses drag to spread positivity, queer representation
March 31, 2023
What’s your story?
The Georgian community is full of unique, inspiring perspectives —and we’re sharing them as part of an ongoing series.
People of Georgian: Meet Kevin Chea
Drag is the first time I got to see any sort of queer representation in a positive light.
I’m a first-generation immigrant. My family moved here when I was 2 ½ years old.
From a third-world country and growing up here in Western culture, I didn’t really see a lot of queer representation in TV or movies, or media in general.
Any of the queer representation I did see involved a lot of trauma and tragedy.
One of the first things I remember learning about gay people is the HIV/AIDS crisis, which is surrounded by so much death.
There’s also the “bury your gays” trope on TV, where queer characters always end up dying, or you see the classic gay character who’s been kicked out by their parents.
I didn’t really have a whole lot to look up to or look forward to growing up.
Welcomed to 2SLGBTQIA+ community with ‘positivity and light’
When I turned 19 or 20 years old, I was working in the only drag bar in Ottawa, where people are actively coming to see these performers who get to be themselves and show off their art in a way that makes other people happy.
They’re singing, they’re dancing, there’s lights, and they’re wearing these amazing costumes and this beautiful makeup and being praised for it.
Not to mention they’re making a career out of it.
To see queer people thriving and happy, and to know I can live a happy life as a queer person and I can grow up to be an adult, it means a lot.
Like, I don’t think I met a queer person who is over the age of 50 until I moved to Ottawa. Part of that is due to the AIDS crisis; we lost an entire generation.
It was really eye-opening to be welcomed into this community with so much positivity and light.
Drag bans, attacks on trans health care ‘incredibly disheartening’
And it’s incredibly disheartening to now see drag bans and obvious attacks on trans health care and trans rights in the U.S.
Some people see these drag bar shows or RuPaul’s Drag Race and the queens wearing very revealing costumes or dancing seductively, and they think every drag performance is like that and it’s perverse – even drag queen story times (book readings) for families.
But I have done quite a few drag story times and there’s nothing inappropriate for a child.
If I’m going to interact with children, I’m not saying the same things I would at the bar. I’m being a pretty princess or a beautiful magic fairy in a poofy skirt and twirling around. It’s no different than going to Disney World and seeing Cinderella.
These events are just to show kids that you can play dress up at any age.
Like all art, drag can be and is modified to be family friendly.
Facing protesters at drag queen story time
Last month I was at Ottawa Winter Pride and did a story time, and protesters showed up.
One of the protesters was livestreaming while we were reading a book on stage and I remember hearing them say, “They’re just reading books that you can get at the library to these kids.”
What did you think drag story time was like?!
I was reading Dr. Suess’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
‘Drag queens hold a lot of responsibility in the queer community’
Drag has shone a very bright spotlight on the queer community, and that’s how a lot of people first interact with the gay and transgender communities.
Drag queens hold a lot of responsibility in the queer community, especially given the history of Pride in North America, with trans drag queens being at the forefront of the movement.
That is kind of why I continue to do it – stand there on stage and be silly and have fun and tell really bad jokes and dance around in high heels…
If someone who is a person of colour, non-binary, an immigrant and visibly queer can look at me and say, “I can see myself in that person,” it’s really, really special.
It’s a weird self-fulfilling thing to be an active community member and show up for queer kids who don’t have that representation otherwise.
Kevin Chea, a student in Georgian’s Honours Bachelor of Counselling Psychology program at the Orillia Campus. Follow them as drag queen Genesis on Instagram.