Miss AIDS Awareness 2014

For as long as I've known them, Dan and Shaunna Rai have been synonymous with Miss AIDS Awareness.  Given the fact that the pageant hadn't been held in three years, for various reasons, I, more or less expected Shaunna Rai to carry on the title, indefinitely.

However, after a three year break, the pageant was held again this year.  It was hosted at Paradym (the former Club 313), presented by Envy Chanel's alter ego, and the NH Task Force.  

Chantel Chanel

Tatoola Tess Tosterone

I've taken a long time to write about the pageant, because there was a lot of things that I needed time to process, and think about how to best sum it up.  I was involved in creating the poster for the Pageant, which became a task all in and of itself.  For a donated piece of artwork, I put far more work into it than I have ever put into my paid work, due to multiple change requests.  (That however, I won't get into, because it'll just make me mad about it again.)  I got the poster out as quickly as I could, once I had the information, and had made all the changes to it.  Unfortunately, for the fundraising part of it, the poster wasn't distributed in enough time for there to be a particularly large audience.  

Countess Morticia

Competitors couldn't register online, or early.  Registration happened about an hour before the show.  Sadly, there were only four entrants. For a title that helps fund raise for what is still known as a primarily "Gay Disease," I would have thought that there would have been more interest in helping out with the fight to find a cure.  (But, maybe I'm in the minority, because I want to spread awareness about this kind of thing?)  Scarrlett Cuntyfierce Couture, Tatoola Tess Tosterone, the Countess Morticia, and Chantel Chanel were the contestants, and former title holders, Miss E,on, Shaunna Rai and Porcia J. Chanel all performed, and the whole thing was hosted by Violencia Exclamation Point.

There was a lot of down time, during the personal interviews, to which I was not privy, so I ended up sitting alone, drinking, waiting for the show itself to start.  The show began, and I was impressed.  I was a little sad that Mercadies Chanel wasn't able to host, due to illness, but I was quite impressed with Violencia.  

Scarrlett Cuntyfierce Couture

The things that stood out the most for me, for the night, were: Dueling Chers with the Newspaper wigs, Honey Boo-Boo's entry into the "Gown Competition", the Disney's Pocahontas montage act, and the fact that all of the contestants, when asked why they would be the best pick for Miss AIDS Awareness, they all kind of skirted giving an actual answer.

Going into the night, knowing a little bit of history, I was not surprised that a couple of the entrants brought people with them to tip, given that tips make up part of the points that you earn overall, and can actually change the final outcome.  E,on won the crown over Shaunna Rai, one year, by one point, because E,on brought in more tips.

Tatoola's "Rose's Turn"

I went into the night, rooting for Tatoola, because we're friends.  But, I know that Tatoola is less into the performing than she is the dressing up.  And, the audience was less than receptive of her.  Although, I thought that she was great.  I loved her "Rose's Turn" performance.

Scarrlett took the show.  The minute that she came out and started doing the medley of Pocahontas songs, I was pretty sure that she had it in the bag.  I love the theatricality of drag, and given that she had backup dancers to perform the parts of John Smith and Powhatan...I may have had to pick my jaw up off the floor.  I agreed with the judging, that Scarrlett deserved the crown.

The Passing of the Crown

Overall, it was a great night.  After the show, I found out some things that made me really sad.  There is so much information that needs to still be redistributed over and over to the gay community about HIV/AIDS.  While it may have just been nerves, none of the contestants could answer how you get the disease, and one contestant actually said that there is a cure for it.  Now, I get that we're not living in the 80's and 90's, when the majority of the gay community actually knew someone who had, or had died from AIDS.  But, there is so much information out there about how it's transmitted, that you would hope that someone would at least know that it's passed through bodily fluids, and not just liquids.  Yes, people still live healthy, productive lives, on a cocktail of meds, once they contract the disease, but that is, by no means a cure.  

I can only hope that Scarrlett will help bring awareness to the younger generation of the community, that while it's not a death sentence anymore, it's still far from being cured, and that the best things to do are get tested, talk about it often, and use protection.  Because, I know that Shaunna, in spite of giving up the crown, will still be doing as much as she can for education and fundraising.

Death of a Gay Bar...

Here in Portland, there are a group of gays, who on a monthly basis, take over a straight bar, just because they can.  They call themselves Guerrilla Queer Bar.  I understand the "We're Here, We're Queer, Get Over It" mentality.  Because, let's face it, it's 2014, not 1950.  We've become a visible.  

I've never participated in this, because, to be quite frank, even though, it's totally acceptable for a gay man to frequent "straight" establishments, I've never felt comfortable enough to do so. I would much rather spend my time either hanging out at the local "Cheers" environment, where everybody really does know my name...and everything about me, or go to a dance club, where nobody cares who I am.  But, a club where I'm the minority, that's just not my thing.  Maybe I am still living in a 1950's world, but I think we need the gay bars.

Unfortunately, gay bars, in the Easternmost states, are becoming a rare commodity.  When I first came out, the state of Maine had far more than it has now.  Bangor had a couple of bars, Augusta had one, Portland had (I believe) three at one point, and well, Ogunquit being Ogunquit, the gay capitol of Maine, had a couple.  Over the course of the last few years, the bars have been going out of business.  Bangor has "gay friendly" clubs, but none that cater to an exclusively gay clientele.  Augusta has none.  Portland still has two gay bars, which rumor has it, neither is doing as well as they could be...Lewiston, since I met Dan/Shaunna Rai, has had not one, not even two, but three different gay bars open and close.  And, Ogunquit has Mainestreet and the Front Porch (a dance club and a piano bar.)  

And, the blight that has been taking away the Maine gay bars, has moved on to New Hampshire, as well.  Over the summer, Shaunna Rai hosted a bag night at Elements, a bar in Manchester, NH.  And, a couple of weeks later, they announced that they would be closing.  (They've since reopened...)  And, then, this week, Paradym/Club 313 (whichever name you prefer to use, because it's the same club, under different management) announced that this weekend, they would be closing their doors.

Sadly, the state of business for many of these bars, is that everyone believes that they're doing fine, and then, all of a sudden, they're closed for good.  And, who is to blame?  

As a group, we, the gays, like to complain.  He's too ugly, he's too fat, he's too much of a whore.  This club is too dirty.  That club doesn't pay enough attention to their clientele.  This one has the same five performers, every week.  That one has too many performers, but they're always performing the same act.  We're never happy.  We need something newer.  Something flashier.  Something different.

And yet, the community as a whole, goes berserk when something happens to the club that they've been complaining about for years.  

I have some suggestions:

1.)  Instead of forcing ourselves on the straight people, why don't we invite them once in a while, to our world?

2.)  Even if you've seen the same seven drag queens at the same bar for the last seventeen years, performing the same seventeen numbers, let them know that you appreciate what they're doing.  More often than not, they're being paid minimal amounts, and getting by on tips.  

3.)  If you want to keep your gay bars around, so that when you feel like being gay, you can be gay, and nobody will give a fuck, SUPPORT YOUR BARS!!!!  I can't stress this enough.  People bitch the most about the bars that appeared to be doing well, that all of a sudden, BANG, they're gone.  Well, if you had been going there, instead of trying to "make a point of your queerness", maybe they'd still be around...

4.)  If you have suggestions for your bars, of what they could do to make things better, find out who you need to talk to, and talk to them!  The worst thing that can happen, is that they're going to say, "Hey, we tried that, and nobody liked it, but thanks for the idea." The best that can happen is that they say, "OMG! I hadn't even thought about that!  Thanks for the idea.  We'll try that!"  

5.)  A cover charge is not a rip off.  Often times, the cover charge is split between the bar and the entertainment for the evening.  If you're not interested in paying a cover charge, you might want to consider buying your alcohol, and having drinks with friends at home.  (You have less of an opportunity for getting picked up for an OUI that way...)

Some things just can't take the place of other things.  Your straight bar with a "gay night", is never going to take the place of your local Gay Bar.  It's not the same.  It's like saying that a Kindle is the same as reading a real book.  It's not.  While I love my Kindle, while I'm reading on it, I miss actually turning the pages, and the smell of the paper.  

Respect your present, because eventually, it is going to be your past.  And, if things keep going the way they have been over the last couple of years, in Maine and New Hampshire, the Gay Bar scene is going to be non-existent.  

Sure, you can still go play Guerrilla Queer Bar-hopper, but don't forget that you can go to your ACTUAL Queer Bar, and support them.  Because eventually, if we're not supporting our bars, they won't be there.  And we'll start bitching about the lack of a place to go where you can be gay, and not have to worry about being gay.

Ask Me Something Interesting!

After I started this blog, Dan started getting requests to answer some questions about drag for people who, like myself, were doing research.  In my case, it's for a blog.  In other cases, it's for college papers, or what have you.

When I created my list of questions that I would just randomly ask any queen who wanted to answer for me, I thought that they were good questions, that anyone would want to know the answers to.  So, after Dan answered the third set of questions, and asked, "Do people realize how many times I answer the same questions? I wish that people would just ask me something different once in a while."

Obviously, people are the most interested in the things that seem the most basic to the person who gets asked them all the time.  So, being the curious person I am, I asked.  "So, what would you rather people ask?"  To which, I got asked a question in return.

"IF you could ask any queen, whether it were me, or Jujubee or Mizery, anything, what would you ask them?  And I'm not talking the fluffy stuff, like how long. Like REAL questions."

And, it got me really to think about what WOULD I ask, if I had the chance.  My thought process went to the usual.  I have an obsession for understanding drag names, and where they come from.  That's my own personal weirdness, but I think other people think it's interesting too. Maybe. Or, maybe it really is just me.  (Fluffy.)  How long have you been doing drag? (Fluffy)  How did you get your start in drag? (Fluffy)

Everything that first comes to mind is fluff.  It's the same set of questions that get asked over and over and over, hundreds of times.  And, once I got that, I realized, there needs to be more to the questions, in order for you to not be the same as everyone else.  This can be accomplished by looking at what you really want to discover from the questions that you ask.

While, in my head, a question like, "How did you get your start?" is all encompassing, to a queen, it's literally about the first time they did drag.  Where, in my head, it's "Tell me about the first time you did drag.  How did you get your name? Who is your drag family? And, a number of other questions that need to actually come out of my mouth (or fingers, as the case may be.) A question that I came up with, on my own, without having to ask a hundred other questions to get the round answer that I wanted, was "What is it about Drag that keeps you coming back to do it? It takes time and money, and can be less than stellar, depending on where, when and who is involved.  You could make a killing with tips, or you could leave with nothing, because you're either going just for exposure, or, because you're donating your time.

Of course, I haven't met Jujubee, to ask her.  And, I haven't seen Mizery, since the last time we went to Club 313 in Manchester.  And, I think when I actually asked that, Dan didn't answer it for me.  Bear in mind, this was a month or two ago, so I may have forgotten if there was an answer, because we were on other business when the subject came up.

Anyway, so we had this conversation, and moved on from it.  And then, a couple weeks ago, a friend asked Dan if he would answer some questions for a research paper.  First thing he said, upon receiving the questions was "Don't you people know how many times I'm asked the same things?" And, he handed me the phone, knowing full well, that I was going to write about this later.  And, sure enough, the majority of the questions were questions that I had already asked him.  Sure, there were a few new/different questions.  But, overall, they set the same tone, as far as content.

So, next time you want to ask a queen a question, try to be mindful of the fact that they're always being asked the same set of questions, about the how/when/why's of it all.  Try to be original, and ask something that will be a little meatier for them.  Don't fluff it up in order to seem like you don't really want to know something.  If you want to know, ASK.  They'll answer.  They might just gripe about the questions at a later date.

That being said, what would you ask a drag queen, if you could ask anything you chose?

Happy New Year!

Shaunna Rai

The period between Halloween and New Year's, was kind of a slow time for Shaunna Rai. And, it's been an interesting time for me. 

I gave up my job, in an attempt to eliminate some stress from my life.  Of course, immediately, I picked up some new stressors...like being broke, and the search for a new job.  Because, at the moment, the blog isn't making me any money...nor are any of my other talents.

Right around Christmas, though, Shaunna Rai started making appearances again.  The first was for the USM Drag Show. Then, an event at Styxx to promote World Aids Day in affiliation with the Frannie Peabody Center.  This was a bit of a disappointment, because there was very little interest in free testing. Shaunna and I both got tested, and I believe that Vanila did as well. And, the good news is that the tests came back negative.  This was the culmination of a few other events around town with the Peabody Center.  And, gave me more of a human face to the disease.  This of course, makes me sound like I didn't know anyone who has it.  The truth of the matter is, that the event prior to the Styxx event, held at the Salt Museum, was the first time that I heard a first hand experience of what it was like to have it, from the beginning of the epidemic.  It was the first time that I felt like I wanted to do something more to contribute toward finding a cure, or even assisting people who are afflicted with it.

Mercadies Chanel

Christmas came, and this was when Shaunna started really making her weekly appearances around town. Dan has been working less hours, and has had a lot more time at home, to work with wigs.  So, over the last couple months, Shaunna Rai, and Vanila Honey-Bush have gotten new hair.   I got a new camera from my parents for Christmas, so new pictures will be coming.  And, the new pictures have helped me with a new business venture of my own...

The drawings here, are drawings that I have been doing, as commissions for people.  Dan has been encouraging me to do something with my drawings for almost as long as I've known him. And, for the most part, I've avoided it. Why? The same reason that I avoid a lot of things.  Fear.  Fear of not being good enough, fear of having people tell me that I suck.  And, the stupidest fear of all...the fear that I would actually enjoy it, and start drawing again on a regular, full time basis.  And out of them all, the last was the one that has come true. I've drawn more since the start of the new year, than I did the entirety of last year and the year before combined.  Sad but true. Commissions can be requested via my email: swd8880@yahoo.com and can be paid for via paypal using the same email address. Pricing starts at $25, but varies depending on the complexity of the picture.  The drawings will be totally customisable, to the buyer's specifications.

Mizery

Two out of the last 3 weeks, Shaunna Rai has been out of state performing, with the two other queens featured in the drawings, Mercadies Chanel, and Boston's Mizery.  And, she's in fact headed back there this weekend to perform with them again. At the end of the last show, I got a shout out from Mercadies, for the drawings that I had done of her...she called out my name in front of everyone, and told them to check out the drawing that she is using as her profile picture on Facebook, then told them that I am accepting commissions.  It was an awkward, but awesome feeling to hear my name called.

Shaunna Rai will again be performing with Mercadies and Mizery at Club 313 in Manchester, New Hampshire, this Saturday.  She has a show coming up in March, and potentially may have a show on a cruise out of Portland harbor sometime in May.

Her show schedule is starting to fill up, and that means things get a little busier. I kinda love it, because this means I have more to blog about. I never know what to expect.  Shaunna Rai changes up her look all the time. I can't wait to see what she has in store for 2014!

Grammar Police

So, it was brought to my attention, that try as I may, to not be offensive, my ignorance, when it comes to pronouns, is going to get me into trouble. As are my assumptions based on slang.

One of the things that I have found most confusing about entering the drag world, is, knowing when is the right time to use the words he or she, or him or her.

+Ms. Vanilla Honey-Bush brought it to my attention, that in talking about +Carmen Carerra, I used the male pronoun him or he, instead of her or she. For a transgender person, the proper pronoun to use, is the one that matches the visible figure.  If a person looks like a woman, you generally should refer to her as a her.

On the other hand, when it comes to the drag community, it's harder to know which gendered pronoun is the right one to use. At this point, after a lot of discussions with Dan and +Shaunna Rai, I've come to the conclusion, that if it quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it's probably a duck, and should be referred to as such. Likewise, if a person is wearing a dress, and makeup, a female pronoun should be used.

In the greater Drag community though, it's much more interesting. Dan has taken me to  +Club 313, in Manchester, NH, and +Jacques' Cabaret, in Boston , MA. In both cases,it was Dan who took me out. But, it was Shaunna Rai who was talked to.

I thought, growing up, that it was bad that my dad knew people, everywhere he went. But, +Shaunna Rai takes that to a whole new level.

Dan explained on the way home from 313, the first time, his expectations about the proper use of pronouns when I'm with him. If I am with Dan as Dan, I refer to him as him. If he is Shaunna Rai, I should refer to him as her.

In talking to +Miss E'on, Vanilla Honey-Bush, and Shaunna Rai, last night, after +Taffy Pulls's +RuPaul's Drag Race viewing party, at +Styxx, it was brought to my attention, that there was an alternative to worrying about using the proper pronoun...use genderless ones, or use the proper name. Or, just skip using pronouns in general.