Winchester drag show celebrates love and belonging

“Winchester is for everyone.”

Displayed on T‑shirts, this mes­sage was preva­lent at a drag show on June 14 in the gym­na­si­um at Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  Emmanuel was a co-spon­sor of the event, along with WinCity Media. 

Attendees of Love Louder: A Pride Month Celebration wore the shirts to make it clear; no one should be scared to be them­selves in their own hometown. 

“The show brings our com­mu­ni­ty togeth­er to hon­or LGBTQ+ joy, expres­sion, and belong­ing in Winchester and helps us cre­ate a safe, wel­com­ing space where every­one can show up as them­selves,” said Crase Wilcoxson, the founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of A Life Worth Celebrating. 

A Life Worth Celebrating, along with All Voices Reading Room and Humanists of Winchester were three orga­ni­za­tions that Love Louder fundraised for. With per­for­mances by daz­zling queens, atten­dees were able to sup­port mar­gin­al­ized groups in Winchester while get­ting to watch amaz­ing drag entertainers. 

Local queens Poly Tics, Rayona Dawn, Latoya BaCall, Mavis Steel, Petty Poussey, and Jude Johanna Dawn lip-synced their hearts out, cater­ing to the crowd of all ages that watched them with eager eyes. While Dolly Parton, Cher, and Whitney Houston sang to the rafters, these queens ground­ed them­selves among the peo­ple who came specif­i­cal­ly for them. 

The event was host­ed in the gym­na­si­um of the church. Emmanuel’s priest, the Rev. Ryan Bloyd-Wiseman explained just how impor­tant it is for the church com­mu­ni­ty to accept all mar­gin­al­ized groups. 

“Everyone is wor­thy of love,” she said. 

It was evi­dent that the queens and patrons alike felt loved at this event. A clear moment of this came when two of the per­form­ers helped cel­e­brate a birth­day in the audience. 

When Poly Tics and Rayona Dawn came out to dish some friend­ly ban­ter in between num­bers, they dis­cov­ered a young girl in the audi­ence had a birth­day com­ing up. Leading the room in a round of “Happy Birthday,” they then bought her a can­dy from the con­ces­sion stand as an ear­ly birth­day gift. 

The young girl, with a huge smile on her face, appeared to be so grate­ful for the queens’ generosity. 

It is moments like these that make events that cel­e­brate love so important. 

That young girl was not the only audi­ence mem­ber who was eager to cel­e­brate love. Two of the drag per­form­ers had their moth­ers in the audi­ence, who were there to cheer on their children. 

“Its been hard being [queer] in a rur­al area,” said Rayona Dawn’s moth­er, known to the per­form­ers as Mama Dawn. “I’ve been sup­port­ing him since he was 21, going to all his shows.” 

Along with Mama Dawn, Jude Johanna Dawn’s moth­er was sit­ting in the audi­ence, and the two of them shared a heart­warm­ing hug in the mid­dle of Jude’s last number. 

In the drag com­mu­ni­ty, true and uncon­di­tion­al sup­port from bio­log­i­cal par­ents is unfor­tu­nate­ly not as com­mon as one would hope. However, many queens have drag moth­ers, role mod­els that help them along their drag journey. 

Rayona Dawn, the drag moth­er to Jude Johanna Dawn and Mavis Steel, has undoubt­ed­ly cul­ti­vat­ed an envi­ron­ment of unwa­ver­ing love for her drag fam­i­ly. The appear­ance of the three of them at this event show­cased a breath­tak­ing dis­play of inner com­mu­ni­ty that Love Louder was hop­ing to exemplify. 

“We host­ed this event because we feel every­one is wel­come,” said Renee Wallace. “It’s impor­tant that peo­ple feel loved.” 

From the singing of “Happy Birthday” to the sup­port from the per­form­ers’ par­ents, it was clear that these events are impor­tant to our com­mu­ni­ty. Celebrating pride is and will always be an act that is full of love and should be void of hatred. 

Events like these are impor­tant because Winchester is for everyone.