{"id":468168,"date":"2022-06-27T20:17:05","date_gmt":"2022-06-27T17:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-drag-is-revitalizing-queer-culture-in-rural-canada\/"},"modified":"2022-06-27T20:17:05","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T17:17:05","slug":"how-drag-is-revitalizing-queer-culture-in-rural-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-drag-is-revitalizing-queer-culture-in-rural-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"#How drag is revitalizing queer culture in rural Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3bf6d596408\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3bf6d596408\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-drag-is-revitalizing-queer-culture-in-rural-canada\/#%E2%80%9CHow_drag_is_revitalizing_queer_culture_in_rural_Canada%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;How drag is revitalizing queer culture in rural Canada&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CHow_drag_is_revitalizing_queer_culture_in_rural_Canada%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;How drag is revitalizing queer culture in rural Canada&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                                                                        <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were families, university students, seniors\u2014a kaleidoscope of people draped in rainbow flags. Some arrived in drag, adorned in multicoloured outfits. Saturday\u2019s Pride parade in Kingston, Ontario, saw the biggest turnout ever in its 30-year history as more than 3,000 locals took to the streets to celebrate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Queer culture is being revived in Canadian towns like Kingston, where the pandemic helped bring it into the mainstream, empowering the community in the process and creating safe spaces.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1237729\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1237729 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0129.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scenes from Kingston\u2019s Pride parade (courtesy Kallan Lyons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Six years ago, local drag performer Rowena Whey left her hometown. \u201cI actually ended up leaving Kingston because I didn\u2019t feel like there was much of a supportive queer community,\u201d says Whey, who started performing in Edmonton before recently returning home. \u201cWhen I moved back it wasn\u2019t about finding a community\u2014it was about building the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>RELATED: A rainbow house beaming with Pride\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now the president of Kingston Pride, Whey also created <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Open Stage, <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a monthly drop-in show for new drag performers, which has drawn locals of all ages to cheer on some of the city\u2019s brightest talent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Kingston drag scene was small and had flown under the radar for years. Just as Whey felt her shows were starting to gain momentum, the pandemic hit and performers across the country were forced to take their shows online. When bars and restaurants in Kingston reopened, venues banned live music. Drag shows, however, were permitted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1237730\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1237730 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0119.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scenes from Kingston\u2019s Pride parade (courtesy Kallan Lyons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Suddenly, people were lining up down the street hoping to get tickets (the release of the first season of the popular reality TV show\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Canada\u2019s Drag Race <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">certainly helped). At her first all-ages show, Whey noticed two young kids sitting up front with their parents.\u00a0 During the intermission, the parents thanked her for providing their children with access to other people like them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFor some people. drag is their earliest form of different gender expression,\u201d says Whey. \u201cIt gives us an opportunity to be visible, because a lot of people don\u2019t know that there\u2019s a queer community in Kingston at all. And when you know it\u2019s there, and you know how to find it, you feel comfortable exposing yourself to the community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kingston\u2019s queer history is buried beneath its military past. But it\u2019s there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1984, Jas Morgan, who was born and raised in Kingston, helped organize the city\u2019s first unofficial Pride parade, marching alongside a small group of out-and-proud Kingstonians down busy Princess Street without experiencing harassment or hostility.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>READ: \u201cPlaying Anne is something I was told I\u2019d never do\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kingston\u2019s LGBTQ+ community managed to carve out queer-friendly spaces in several local bars. The city\u2019s first gay bar, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Office<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, opened in the early 1980s above the local gentleman\u2019s club. The club became the birthplace of Kingston drag.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Morgan, a trans woman who legally adopted her drag name, recruited 21 other people for Kingston\u2019s first drag show in the late \u201980s. Eventually, shows were packed with queer and straight audience members alike.<\/span><b>\u00a0<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Afterwards, Morgan would wander to another pub in full makeup for a drink. \u201cI never felt intimidated or threatened. Kingston was an amazing city for those reasons,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1237735\" style=\"width: 760px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1237735 size-large lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Jas1-750x422.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jas Morgan, right (Photo courtesy Morgan)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 1992, the mayor of Kingston first proclaimed June 20 as the annual Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Pride Day, having voted against it the year before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet by the time Morgan moved to Toronto 16 years ago, the city\u2019s drag scene had all but dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>eared. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Office<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which had since been renamed several times, closed in the early 2000s. Morgan\u2019s protege (a.k.a. \u201cdrag daughter\u201d) Tyffanie Morgan had the difficult task of single-handedly keeping queer culture in Kingston alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen I first turned up [in the late \u201990s], I would be happy to have 40 people at a show,\u201d says Morgan, who also runs fundraisers in support of queer causes and community members, including conversion therapy survivors. \u201cAnd then we started getting a lot more women. We had grandmothers out at the last show.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div id=\"attachment_1237731\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1237731 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_0116.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scenes from Kingston\u2019s Pride parade (courtesy Kallan Lyons)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traditionally associated with queer men, today\u2019s drag queens and kings include cisgender women, transgender and non-binary people and even some straight men.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn my mind, drag <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">queer culture,\u201d says Morgan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE: I\u2019m on a waitlist with nearly 100,000 Nova Scotians who need a doctor\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks to the rising popularity of drag shows, queer visibility in Kingston has exploded. Whey says more areas of the city and businesses are accepting of queer people and events, including making inclusivity a priority in their advertising and promotions. Queen\u2019s University has created groups for queer employees, Indigenous peoples and the BIPOC community. There is even a new queer climbing club.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for Whey, she is the first Canadian drag queen to be featured on a beer available at liquor stores across Ontario, thanks to her partnership with a local brewery. Aptly named <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Queen of Wheat<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a portion of the proceeds go toward the Canadian Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">All the doors I\u2019ve opened\u2026 congrats <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thatbitchlemon?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@thatbitchlemon<\/a> and <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MillStreetBrew?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MillStreetBrew<\/a> on the release of Lemon Wheat in LCBO \ud83c\udf4b Now there are 2 beers with drag queens supporting LGBTQ+ organizations. Queen of Wheat by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpearheadBeer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SpearheadBeer<\/a> with <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CCGSD_CCDGS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@CCGSD_CCDGS<\/a> and Lemon Wheat with <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RainbowRailroad?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RainbowRailroad<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4ZMsrRFBDv\">pic.twitter.com\/4ZMsrRFBDv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rowena Whey (@RowenaWhey) <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RowenaWhey\/status\/1524879117690232837?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 12, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The growing presence of Kingston\u2019s LGBTQ+ community is helping to inspire nearby towns. Napanee, for example, hosted their first ever Pride parade earlier this month.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI feel happy that I have a place that I feel welcome in now,\u201d says Whey. \u201cI\u2019m really proud to live here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean<\/em>&#8216;s sent straight to your inbox. 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Some arrived in drag, adorned in multicoloured outfits. Saturday\u2019s Pride parade in Kingston, Ontario, saw the biggest turnout ever in its 30-year history as more than 3,000 locals took to the streets to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Rowena1-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130750,130751,23261,103130,130752],"class_list":["post-468168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-drag","tag-kingston","tag-lgbtq","tag-pride","tag-rowena-whey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}