Today we, Coe Alliance, sponsored one of the biggest events on campus; Drag Show. This year's theme was "Valentine's Day: What a Drag!" Therefore, the decoration was also Valentine's day like; lots of heart-shaped stuff and pink or red stuff. I am a member of the club, so I helped setting up the stage and other decorations.

The show started at 9pm. It was a hilarious, it was a surprisingly funny show. All the casts are supposed to dress up in a opposite sex fashion. But It was not serious, but funny. Most of them were students, but some of them were professional (since we needed to warm up the atmosphere), a friend of mine told me. Needless to say, professional's performance was so good, it was like I was watching a TV show, but the students performed really well. My conversation partner, Gen, also performed with some of his friends. They were so good. Their dance was pretty well, and in addition, funny performance made the audience laugh so many times.

We also collected the donations during this show. There was a cash bar for those who are eligible to drink alcohol, and the benefits all will be donated. In addition, lots of audience came up to the stage during the performance and gave one dollar bills to the performers. However, it is the Drag Show. They don't give it in an usual way; they jammed bills into performers' bra. It was so funny. Since most of the "female" performers are "men," their boobs are fake, thus, it arouse lots of laughter. I also gave a one dollar bill. All the money will be donated to the organization, United Action for Youth, which supports the GLBTQ people.

In the United States, the GLBTQ people are relatively well known and accepted; they have a certain position. However, we can hardly see this kind of show in Japanese college; they are hidden in Japan. It is a significant difference and I want to evaluate the situation in the United States highly. I think it is a healthy environment for all the people. But I was wondering how today's audience, especially those who are not interested in gender or sexuality studies, watched and felt it. Curiosity will be no problem, just to have fun for Saturday night will be also no problem as a reason that they came here. But if they think it strange and regard it as different or weird, I would say that is a wrong idea. Certainly, this kind of show tends to emphasize the differences of position or behavior between the GLBTQ people and the others, but if they don't emphasize it, "the others" will never see the GLBTQ people. But this is a difficult problem. It is a staged fight.

Although I had some different impression, overall I enjoyed the show. I laughed at the performance a lot. If I had a chance, maybe next year, I would like to perform on the stage.
(The show ended at 11pm, but I helped cleaning up the caf, so I am staying up still now. I will soon go to bed, I am sleepy.)