On Friday, April 5th, the third annual Elizabethtown College Campus Queens show took place. By the show’s opening at 9 p.m., every single chair in the KAV was filled with students buzzing with energy and excitedly waving pride flags.
The show was made possible by Darcey Mills and the Department of Diversity, Equity and Belonging (DEB) as a part of the larger Etown PRIDE event lasting for all of April. The reason for PRIDE being in April is because Pride Month– June– is taken over by the summer break.
Five drag queens made an appearance at Campus Queens. Betty Whitecastle and Lizzie Beaumont opened the show with jokes and music that hyped up the crowd. During the show, the five queens took the stage, demanding the attention of attendees as they unveiled their intricate costumes and struck impressive dance moves. Vilory Holl, Shae Good and Samara Lanegrá (who was cast on Drag Latina Season Two)had solo lip-sync performances and were cheered on by the crowd, who offered the queens tips.
Second-year student Olivia Pituch says that she had a wonderful time at the event, despite not knowing exactly what to expect:“[Campus Queens] was… one of my first immersion experiences in the LGTBQ+ community. It was really cool to be in an environment with other Etown students and faculty. I was surprised to see very little negative reaction to the event, though I might just not have noticed it. All of the queens were incredible. The event as a whole was safe and a lot of fun!”
The Campus Queens events happened during uncertain times in the world of drag in central Pennsylvania. A drag queen story hour with Miss Aime Vanité was scheduled to be hosted at the Lancaster Public Library on Saturday, March 23. It was abruptly canceled on the morning of the event because a “suspicious package” assumed to be an explosive device was delivered to the building, according to WGAL.
Voters in Mountville Borough and East Hempfield Township have decided to withhold tens of thousands of dollars each to the Lancaster Area Public Library until it can be agreed upon that no drag queen story hour events be held there again. The voters, particularly the parents, are uncomfortable with drag queens reading LGBTQ+ material to children of the community.
“The libraries are very, very low funded. They really need this money at this Mountville library that serves so many people. It’s very sad that we’re doing this in our community. We need to work together. The library is really a source for everybody,” said one local to the Lancaster area, Pat Ditzler, to WGAL.
The drag fun will continue on April 14 with Queens who Brunch, which will be held at the House of Music, Arts and Culture in Harrisburg at 11 in the morning. Betty Whitecastle, Lizzie Beaumont and other drag queens will be at this queer-friendly event! Admission is twenty-five dollars.
Knowledge of the struck-down drag story hour might have made some attendees concerned for their safety at Etown’s Campus Queens, but, in the end, the event was a success. The queens had a very popular performance; their hard work is obvious in their expertise.
In spite of the lingering fear of violence and public pushback at drag events, Etown College’s Campus Queens was one that was full of love, acceptance and PRIDE.
