The San José State Student Union Ballroom sparkled to life on Friday during the third annual “Drag Brunch After Dark” event.
The drag brunch, organized by the SJSU PRIDE Center and Student Involvement, was themed after Chappell Roan’s Billboard Hot 100 hit, “Pink Pony Club.”
More than 200 students donned hot pink cowboy hats and bandanas and dined on brunch food provided by Nirvana Soul Coffee and La Lune Sucrée.
Bonnie Sugiyama, director of SJSU’s PRIDE and Gender Equity centers, said they hope the event allows students to combat oppression through joy.
“A lot of how the queer community is oppressed is because of not necessarily presenting with stereotypical gender presentation,” Sugiyama said. “And so exaggerating that, making fun of that, having fun with it, is something that our community really likes to do.”
The lineup of Bay Area performers included host Jota Mercury, Fenderqueer, Lisa Frankenstein and Kitty KaPowww.
The setlist included Roan’s hits like “Good Luck, Babe” and “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” as well as throwbacks like Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” and Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.”
Andrea Oppliger-Delgado, a SJSU third-year animation and illustration student, said she came to the show at the suggestion of her roommates.
“We’re all animation majors, so we’re all, of course, gay,” Oppliger-Delgado said. “We all spread the word to each other.”
As an arts student, she appreciated the creativity of the performers’ costumes.
“I love Lisa Frankenstein’s costumes. I loved (Kitty KaPowww’s) bath towel. I just never knew the costumes could be that cool until I came to one of these (drag shows),” Oppliger-Delgado said.
Jess Prudent, campus program coordinator at Student Involvement, said the event is one of few non-alcoholic spaces available for the LGBTQ+ community to socialize.
“Having a space where we don’t have any alcohol, but we do have highly caffeinated drinks on a Friday, at 7:30 in the evening, there’s still some vice there and it’s fun,” Prudent said.
Alcohol-free events offer an alternative for LGBTQ+ individuals seeking community and social life outside of bars and nightclubs.
Before enjoying legal protections, queer people often relied on gay and lesbian bars and queer nightlife to express themselves without fear of persecution, according to The Scholar and Feminist Online, a journal of The Barnard Center for Research on Women.
The rates of substance use and addiction are substantially higher in the queer community than in the general population, according to the same source.
Drag Brunch is not the only recurring drag event at SJSU; the PRIDE center hosts other events featuring drag in the spring including Queer Prom, according to Prudent.
Lisa Frankenstein, a drag performer at the Oasis Cabaret and Nightclub, said she enjoyed performing for a younger audience.
“Everyone was so enthusiastic and into it, which makes it more fun for us,” Frankenstein said. “I work at a bar, so it’s all 21 and up, so to connect with people who can’t necessarily go to the bar is really lovely, and to show them drag is really a wonderful experience.”
Drag is a centuries-old performance art that exaggerates and satirizes the presentation of gender through costume, makeup and theatrics, according to a May 2019 article from BBC.
Its origins can be traced back to the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when male stage actors would play female roles because women were not allowed to play them, according to the same source.
Drag balls, a queer subculture centered around Black and Latino gay and transgender communities, are traced as early as the late 1800s in Harlem and have significantly influenced drag performance and culture, according to the National Museum of American History.
Jota Mercury, drag king and producer of “Rebel Kings of Oakland” at Oasis Cabaret & Nightclub in San Francisco, said he loves doing college gigs.
“I was talking to the other performers about the idea of ‘funny money’ – usually I’m like, ‘Oh God.’ But it’s so sweet and wonderful to watch the students get so excited to hand off this idea of money – without, obviously, having to go even more broke than your average student,” Mercury said.
Drag king performances are another form of drag where usually cisgender women, trans men or nonbinary people play with masculine identities through lip syncing, comedy and dancing, according to a June 2023 article from Gay Times.
Although their history is rich and influential in the history of Stonewall and the movement for LGBTQ+ rights, drag kings typically do not receive as much mainstream media attention, according to the same source.
Prudent said the feedback she’s received from students over the past three years of hosting Drag Brunch have been overwhelmingly positive.
“I think the most mean thing we’ve ever gotten was, ‘How dare you give us caffeine at eight o’clock at night on a Thursday?” Prudent said. “Everyone else has just been really happy that either they can bring their friends or, if they’re not out of the closet yet, there’s a safe place, and if they are out the closet, it’s just screaming and happiness.”
She said the show is also a way for the university community to support local and queer-owned businesses.
Mercury said he enjoyed seeing initially-shy attendees get louder and more comfortable as the night went on.
“I remember being in that position of being so new to it all, and like, sparkle eyes,” he said. “These are the kinds of gigs that, whenever I’m feeling just drained and jaded, I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, there’s joy to be had in the world, still.”
