The stage lights up and illuminates the faces of all the drag queens ready to bust a move at Thursday night`s Halloween drag show. One dollar bills were thrown and queens flipped and danced with such enthusiasm that the crowd went wild in celebration.
A long flowing red dress accented the form of a beautiful drag queen, who moved with an attitude of fun and excitement. Her face and eyes were perfectly contoured and stood out in a highly glamorous way. And the crowd went crazy with enthusiasm.
“Performing feels exciting and uplifting,” said 24-year-old drag queen, Chris Morse.
Morse has been performing at events such as these for the past three years. His passion is to transform into a different character to make someone else`s day brighter.
“Performing means I get to carry on a part of my culture.” Morse said. “It opens up the doorway of freedom to express myself.”
The queens were glad that they could perform in front of an appreciative audience that was not intoxicated since that is unusual in the case of drag shows.
“I am grateful to NIC and the LGBT community for giving me the opportunity to entertain in a sober environment,” Morse said, who has been successfully sober for over two years.
The show was a huge success and all of the proceeds went toward the gender and sexuality alliance club at NIC.
The club will now be able to send someone to the LGBT Leadership Conference which entails openly LGBT elected officials and other public leaders from around the world gathering to make connections, swap ideas and evolve their leadership skills.
The proceeds also benefited other upcoming events held by the club such as, the Spring King Fling drag show, the National Conference of LGBT students, National Day of Silence, Transgender day of Remembrance and National Coming Out Day.
“Feeding off of the energy, being able to be freely expressive and make people laugh and smile is my passion,” said Juli Stratton whose students asked her to start performing three years ago. She has been doing it ever since. To Stratton, performing is a means to create a broader community for people to be their true selves.
The turnout was a success. And the show a glamorous display of support for all who participated.
“I love to support all the LGBT in our community,” said Morse.” Treat them with kindness and love. As Mamma Ru said, ‘You better work.'”
