#58: Experience Drag Bingo

              Four years ago I guarantee you I didn’t know what drag was, and I don’t think I knew any openly gay men. However, college was a definite culture shock in experiencing all of the different orientations of people out there. Unfortunately, the past few weeks have been very tragic for the LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender) community due to at least five suicides from September and October resulting from bullying of several teens over their sexual orientation. I felt this was a very appropriate time for me to show my support for the gay community and to get my taste of UVA’s openly whatever and experience DRAG BINGO for the first time!

            I actually came in with no expectations whatsoever except that the people I had been in contact with about arranging tickets were very friendly (when I had stopped by on Thursday to purchase my tickets and the office was closed, I emailed the coordinator and she very kindly let me purchase tickets the day of at the same price!). Heather had agreed to go with me earlier because she said the performances were a riot, and my new work friend Maggie was interested in going as well! So I spent the Friday night of Halloween weekend psyching myself up for all that is glamorous and drag. I wasn’t disappointed.

            Heather, Maggie, her friend Macy, and I snagged a table near the front and filled out our BINGO cards. There were skittles on the table to use as the markers, and people dressed normally and in drag started showing up. It turns out that this event is more of a drag “show” interspersed with rounds of BINGO, and it was fun to watch the performances--mostly dancing and lip syncing to music although one guy who was wearing an extremely hole-y almost dominatrix costume who had his mouth taped shut composed a song on the piano. My favorite performance was a guy and a girl dressed in drag re-interpreting Eminem and Rhianna’s “Love the Way You Lie”. They were SO into it, and the guy was actually amazing at portraying Rhianna’s pain, but in a very entertaining way! It wasn’t until the end of the show that I realized he is one of the guys I swipe into the AFC every Wednesday! And one of the emcees was a guy Heather works with at Mem! I loved knowing someone up there and was all the more entertained as a result! Although we didn’t win any of the prizes or even really get BINGO (because after the first round we had to do blackout or boxes or cross shapes etc) I had so much fun and was super glad to have experienced the event! ...Oh, and for future reference, there is basically a big hoopla everytime O-69 is drawn... totally saw that coming :D

“I want to be so famous that drag queens will dress like me in parades when I'm dead.” -- Laura Kightlinger