Frans Gender, Alana Duvey and Jordy Deelight providing motherly advice to the drag nation
Dear SickeningGlasgow,
I urgently need your help. I told my parents I was gay when I was 15. My dad flew into a rage and demanded I go to counselling and my mum cried, saying I just hadn’t found the right girl yet. My only ally during this time was my older sister who had gay friends and completely supported my sexuality. Now I am in my late twenties and my parents are completely accepting of me and we have a great relationship. The problem I have is that my sister has recently come out as gay and my parents are delighted and oh so understanding of her. No tears were shed, no threats of counselling or anything like that. Should I be rejoicing at the fact that my sister didn’t have to go through what I did or am I right to be annoyed about it??
Gary from Glasgow
Frans Gender
Dear Gary,
It’s always wonderful news when a family has managed to wade through years of proverbiale crab-grass to reach the well-tilled fields of acceptance. Sure, you’re only human and it’s natural to feel jealous of your parent’s immediate acceptance of your sibling’s vaginal inclination but if I were you I’d just suck it up (I know fully that you’re perfectly capable of such an act) and be happy for your sister. Some families spend their entire lives separated by ignorance so do your best to be there for your sister. Maybe buy her some hiking boots or a coupon for a “lumberjack-vagina” class or something (I don’t know many lesbians).
Alana Duvey
Hi Gary,
Thank you so much for getting in touch with me this week. That’s certainly a dilemma you have there. My advice to you is that now is the time to throw the tantrum of all tantrums! You flounce on into that living room with your high heels on in front of the whole family as they watch X Factor and let rip! Tell them exactly how you feel, how rejected you felt when you came out. Fall to the ground slowly sliding down the arm of the couch with your mascara running down your face from the tears! Kick your legs and arms up in the air and off the floor shouting how it’s not fair and that it’s pure favouritism. As for your double crossing sister, clearly drunk on jealousy at the attention you got for coming out pretending to support you before “coming out herself” she’s not even a lesbian, she told me! She’ll be forced to admit her lies and from then on you’ll be at your parent’s mercy. Anything you want, it’s yours through fear of wrongfully upsetting you again and your sister will be forced to live in the loft where she belongs, feeding on scraps from a trough once a month. Happiness all round. You’re welcome.
Jordy Deelight
Hi Gary,
Here’s Jordy Dee spilling some T! Coming out is a horrible, horrible experience, and my best advice to you and your sibling would be to go back in the closet and stay there. But on a serious note- the fact you and your sibling have both managed to share a personal part of yourselves is something to be proud of- the main word being PROUD. Here comes the more tricky part. You say the problem is the fact your parents haven’t shown the same negative treatment to your sister, much like your own experience, and that you’re annoyed. Well of course you’re annoyed, you’re a gay man. But surely you want your sister to be accepted like you are now, and use your experience as a starting point for educating your parents and preventing this for future generations? No? Oh well, I suggest if you don’t that you cancel your Netflix subscription so your sister can’t watch any more Orange is the New Black.
On Sunday 20th March the o2 ABC on Sauchiehall Street played host to the We Heart Pop event, the RuPaul’s Drag Race Battle of the Seasons official after party. Dressed up in their decadent finery, Glasgow’s glitterati turned up for a night of diva lip sync battles, sickening drag performances and classic pop tunes. Hosted by the sickening duo that is Acid Taint and Alice Rabbit, these queens brought the glamour, beauty, lip sync prowess and razor sharp shade to the night’s proceedings and SickeningGlasgow were there to capture this amazing event.
Our hosts for the evening Acid Taint and Alice Rabbit. Photo credit: Crawford
The after show was a mixture of great pop tunes interspersed with fierce lip sync battles from members of the audience. Willing participants from the crowd entered into a lip sync battle, fighting it out on stage with the audience having the deciding vote. From Liza Minelli to Tina Turner these lip sync divas turned the party. Whether being doused in alcohol or having rogue punters storming the stage during their performance, nothing stopped these divas from performing to their favourite pop classics. You can tell these fierce performers had been practicing their lip sync in front of the mirror in order to perfect their moves. But then again, who hasn’t??
Just when you thought the night couldn’t get any better, we were treated to some impromptu live performances from some of the RuPaul’s Drag Race queens. Sickening performances from Jinkx Monsoon, Sharon Needles and Adore Delano almost snatched our lace fronts from our heads, driving the crowd into a frenzy, so much so that our photographer, Simon, suffered mild injuries and slight bruising while shooting the action. What a way to go though!! Jinx, Sharon and Adore stayed to party and party they did. The queens set the stage on fire with their performances and charmed the diamond encrusted corsets off of us.
Adore Delano serving face during a live performance. Photo credit: Crawford
After the diva lip sync battles ended the party hotted up even further with a fierce selection of pop classics for us to dance and strut to until 3am, with the friendly bar staff on hand to ensure the drinks flowed all night. While having a well earned pint, we were approached by Pandora Boxx who couldn’t wait to have her picture taken with us after her Battle of the Seasons performance. Naturally she loved us so much, and because we at SickeningGlasgow will stop at nothing to bring you all of the gossip, she invited us into the queens’ dressing room to sit, relax, and gossip after a hard night of blogging. Do you see how we suffer for you, Glasgow?! Pandora is an absolute doll and agreed to an exclusive interview and photo shoot with SickeningGlasgow next time she performs in Glasgow. Stay tuned for that, folks!!!
Checkout the rest of the sickening fun and fabulous frolics in the album below.
Checkout this guest submission by the sickening Conner Milliken who discusses the importance of celebrating diversity in the LGBT community
Every so often I gaze around at the beautiful, queer creatures that I call friends and I can’t help beam with a sense of pride. Many of them are drag queens, many identify as gender-queer and many identify as femme gay men. I am all for the full liberation from gender binaries and I applaud anyone who steps to the beat of their own drum; to live as one’s authentic self is the bravest and inspiring thing anyone can do.
Living in this bubble is comfortable but the fragility of living in such an open space is made apparent when I read an insulting comment online or hear hateful remarks whispered in bars. I’m not talking about comments coming from outside the LGBTQI community rather the comments that are hissed at wonderful people from within. I’m talking to the Tarzans of our community (and I hate to attach such a great Disney film to bitter-Betties). Now before we go any further I will admit that I present as male: I have facial hair and I wear clothes that are usually found under the ‘Men’s’ section of any high-street store. Even still, I would never claim to be masculine, I float around quite happily being as feminine as I want. I’m not attacking anyone who presents as male and is happy with that presentation. I am talking about the ‘Masc-for-Masc, no-camp, straight-acting’ gays who don’t even realise how damaging and deeply hurtful their comments are to their fellow gay men.
Just this week I did the silliest of moves by going onto the comment thread of an article that quoted various British soap stars asking for more screen time for their camp characters. I didn’t even have to scroll far down the thread to find the bullfrog with the blow-horn proclaiming “MEN SHOULD BE MEN”, “I FANCY MEN NOT WOMEN”, “GENDER NORMS ARE THE MESSIAH” and I began bashing my head off of my laptop.
Let’s get a few things straight. People don’t have to conform to your idea about masculinity and femininity. No one has the right to police anyone’s gender expression. People should be free to wear what they want and to enjoy their lives however they want. Everyone should be free to live and be as feminine or masculine as they want as long as they do not judge others for who they are. Insidious and venomous views only damage us and I need all of you to see that. Your comments reek of internalised homophobia. Society has beaten into so many of us for so long that anyone who is not definable by what is deemed as acceptably fitting into a category of man-masculine: woman-feminine that there is something wrong with them.
There is not.
If this is sounding like the way that you think then I think you need to think about how you think.
Think.
We as a community have enough obstacles to face, in particular our trans brothers and sisters still have many legal barricades to get access to medical care, employment and open acceptance by everyone -a fight we must help with. I am proud to be a part of a community that accepts anyone for who they are as long as they love with open hearts and celebrate how wonderfully diverse we all are.
There is no room for chest-banging. There is no room for perpetuating oppression. I think it’s time you swing on down and join us in the jungle that is as vibrant and colourful as you are ever going to get.
Rupauls own UK drag ambassador finalist Rujazzle is coming to town to take part in the Mummy Issues drag event for Mother’s Day.
The drag show is a part of the Creative City festival, organised by four City of Glasgow College students. It will be held on the 6th of March at The Record Factory on Byres Road, Glasgow from 7pm to 10pm.
There are ten acts performing Glasgow’s own Lacy Rain and newer queens such as Wig Wars winner Lucy Stewpid. Acts include live singing, comedy, dancing and competitions.
The students want to bring drag a new audience while creating a space people feel safe and without prejudice. It’s an environment encouraging fun but also awareness. With drag having changed drastically over the years and the perceptions of society changing, it’s important that people’s awareness also changes.
7-10pm at the Record Factory, 17 Byres Rd, Glasgow G11 5RD
This week we will be focussing on our great city of Glasgow as the basis for our favourite things. Find an array of upcoming events, videos of performances from local queens and photos of our amazing city that have captured our attention this week.
Have you ever wanted to read a queen for her look but been too polite to say anything? Well fear not, Charlize De Werk is on hand to say what most of us are thinking. Will it be a LEKKER or a KAK?
Hey Glasgow!! We here at SickeningGlasgow have been obsessed with the NYFW shows so much that we can barely get anything done. In light of this we have picked a few of our favourite shows so that YOU, our loyal and sickening readers, can stay up to date with all the latest fashion trends from the NYC runways. Enjoy!!
Marc Jacobs | Fall Winter 2016/2017 Full Fashion Show
Victoria Beckham | Fall Winter 2016/2017 Full Fashion Show
Alexander Wang | Fall Winter 2016/2017 Full Fashion Show
Balmain | Fall Winter 2016/2017| Menswear
Versace | Fall Winter 2016/2017 | Menswear
Dsquared²| Fall Winter 2016/2017| Menswear
And just because we cant get over how flawless these 90s supermodels were (and still are), here is a major throwback to the 1990 George Michael track ‘Freedom! 90’ featuring Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, Christy Turlington and Cindy Crawford
I have a confession to make, we here at SickeningGlasgow love a mid week suck…Suck Wednesdays at Delmonica’s that is. Suck is a weekly drag event hosted by Glasgow’s leading ladies Rujazzle, Lacy Rain, October Fist and Perry Cyazine. Packed full of dazzling performances by the resident ladies, Suck also features weekly guest drag artists who blow up the stage with amazing talent, looks and lip syncing skills.
My first piece of advice is MAKE SURE YOU GET A FRONT ROW SEAT, believe me you DO NOT want to miss any of the sickening antics. My second piece of advice is EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED!!! Whether its Lacy Rain dropping chocolate sponge into your pint (chocolate sponge and lager is my new diet drink – patent pending!!!) or Rujazzle dressed as the sexiest MILF you’ve ever seen while changing baby Lacy and spanking her for being a bad girl, the ladies sure know how to put on a fabulous show.
Lacy Rain has been a bad girl!! Photo credit: Simon Crawford
On Wednesday (3rd February) the show’s hostesses were Rujazzle and Lacy Rain, while Alana Duvey and Dharma Geddon, Glasgow’s fiercest drag power couple, took to the stage as the guest performers to fight it out in a fierce lip sync battle royale. Trust me folks when they call it a battle – they mean it!! Both girls slayed with their performances, however the audience chose Alana as the overall winner. Werk Alana!!!
Let the lip sync battle commence!! Photo credit: Simon Crawford
SickeningGlasgow was in tow with the amazingly talented Simon Crawford who snapped every lip movement and eyelash flutter for you to feast your eyes on. Checkout the sickening photos below!!!
Catch all the action every Wednesday night from 9pm @ Delmonica’s, 68 Virginia Street, Glasgow. And just remember folks, from now on, Wednesdays Suck!!
Someone once told me “being gay is a sport for the young”. Well, I’ve never been much of a sports fan so I’m happy to stand on the sidelines and watch you young people compete for the attention. It’s no secret that I am the oldest contestant to ever appear on RuPaul’s Drag Race, which was highlighted by a certain Puerto Rican queen, and that I wear my age proudly. Many people and several news organizations implied and insinuated “ageism” as factor in my premature elimination from the show. Doubtful since Ru is older than me, but clearly gay culture is youth-obsessed. So where does that leave those geriatric fossils like me? I’ll tell you, in a great place!
First of all, I don’t think that gay men are any more youth-obsessed than the general population, but I fear that the younger generations lack appreciation for what older folks have accomplished. I grew up gay in a time where we lived in fear for our safety, in fear of losing the love of our families, and with no public role models. It was a time of great shame and emotional darkness, and there were few community leaders brave enough to make a public stand against the legal and social injustices that we faced. Young and old people today owe a sincere debt of gratitude to the people who fought for their rights to exist in public, to work without fear of retribution, and to marry the ones that they love.
“Trust me…ageing is a gift. Embrace it. Own it.“
Besides acknowledging and celebrating our past I want all the little wrinkle-fearing queens out there to know a little secret; life actually gets better the older you are! There are many great benefits to ageing, here are just a few:
You just don’t give a f*#k! By late middle age most of life’s great obstacles and challenges have been faced and conquered. There’s no more worrying about what might happen, or how you’re going to achieve something…it’s already been done.
Looks aren’t everything. But by this point in your life you can afford the best in fillers, Botox, or other cosmetic procedures. And, you’ve finally mastered those amazing filters for selfies on your phone. And who cares if you put on a little weight, Eat! And eat well!
Bedtime, 9:00pm. No more long days trying to recover from last night’s party. You can sleep as much or as little as you like. Plenty of rest, plenty of time to spend with that retirement fund.
Dressing for comfort. Forget the leg-numbing skinny jeans and overpriced designer goods. I intend to spend my retirement in vintage kimonos, a nice turban, and lambs wool slippers. Who cares what anyone thinks about me anymore.
Be the Crazy Old Person. I look forward to saying inappropriate things, farting in public, and using my perceived senility to cut to the front of the queue and have nice young men carry things for me. I’ll probably keep a wheelchair and walker around just to milk as much sympathy as possible.
So trust me gay people, ageing is a gift. Embrace it. Own it. Spend some time listening to, and learning from someone older and wiser. I try to live my life in a way that makes me happy and healthy, but I’m hoping to morph into that wise old queen that people look to for advice. Wisdom is not knowledge, but how you use it. Never stop learning. And remember to love yourself, live your truth, and you’re never too old to dream!
We caught up with the dazzling Rujazzle to gain an insight into her sparkly world. We talk about influences, RuPaul’s Drag Race and the urgent need for a Glasgow drag queen reality series.
Photo credits: Andrea Barbiroli
How did you come up with the name Rujazzle?
I didn’t actually choose my name; it was given to me. When I started doing drag at uni in my first year my best friend Benji and I started dressing up for house parties. In St Andrews there’s no night life or nightclubs so all you have are house parties. We would dress up and have ridiculous themes that ranged from 1950s housewives to Mexican prostitutes and that’s how we started doing drag. One of our really good friends named us the Jazzle Sisters because back in 2011 or 2012 TOWIE was the big thing. We were named after Vajazzle as a sort of silly pun, my friend was named Benjazzle and I was called Rujazzle after our boy names. My name has kind of stuck, I’ve gone through phases where I’ve wanted to change it to something that I have chosen but I kind of like it. I see being Rujazzle as not being a character but just an aspect of Ruairidh that’s a bit more sparkly.
How long have you been doing drag?
My very first time in drag was way back in 2011 when I was still at high school for a Halloween party. I was a Halloween queen like many others. My friends and I dressed as the characters from the Queen video I want to Break Free. I was Roger Taylor who was the schoolgirl, so I was blonde and I’ve been blonde ever since.
Technically I’ve been doing drag since I was a baby. I have two older sisters who would dress me up as a doll when I was a little boy, so I would be in dresses with pigtails because I had long blonde curly hair.
“I’ve become very inspired by the art world, and I’ve turned out looks inspired by Van Gogh, Warhol, Magritte, Dali, and others“
Who and what inspires your looks?
Not to sound too old and grand but I started doing drag before RuPaul’s Drag Race became popular in the UK so I never had that frame of reference. My idea of drag back then was Dame Edna or Lily Savage. Once I started doing drag I didn’t know anything about it. My intention wasn’t to be a drag queen it was sort of accidental and I started dressing up for fun. So I wasn’t really inspired by any one person. I suppose being a millennial I’m inspired by Lady Gaga, it’s unavoidable not to be influenced by any pop diva, really. I study art history, and as my drag evolved to my current style, I’ve become very inspired by the art world. I’ve turned out looks inspired by Van Gogh, Warhol, Magritte, Dali, and others.
Where was your first performance and what song did you perform to?
My first performance was in a talent show in St Andrews in 2013 and I performed to Sweet Transvestite from Rocky Horror. It’s my favourite film of all time and I’m tattooed. (pulls up sleeve to reveal a tattoo with the movie quote “Don’t dream it, be it”) The movie is really important to me.
Rujazzle has the quote from Rocky Horror tattooed on her arm ‘Don’t dream it, be it’. “The movie is really important to me”
You are host and performer at Mothertucker at Katie’s Bar. What made you and the other girls decide to organise your own night?
When I was in New York in the summer I went to a lot of weekly ensemble drag shows. There’s so many of them all over the city that have the same cast, a guest performer and a different theme each week. It made me think that there isn’t really anything like that in Glasgow, and the New York events were always so busy when I went to them. That was my inspiration for creating the show. Mothertucker launched back in February in Stereo as a one off thing with me, October (Fist), Perry (Cyazine) and Lacy (Rain). We were planning on bringing it back eventually but we didn’t have a venue. Fortunately, when I came back from New York, Katie’s Bar contacted me and they offered us a weekly slot. It all came together very fortuitously.
You were a RuPaul’s Drag Race UK Ambassador finalist. What made you apply?
I applied with no expectations. I really didn’t expect to be a finalist. I applied on the off chance that RuPaul might watch my video and know who I was for a split second. I was very shocked to be a finalist, but it was very affirming. I felt like all the hard work I had put in was finally paying off, especially being a relatively new queen back then (I guess I am still a relatively new queen, I’m not going to make out that I’m some kind of established act). It was very intimidating to go there and compete against queens who have been doing drag for 10/15 years.
What the process involved?
All the queens had to send in audition videos to the TV network, similar to the audition process for Drag Race. Perry and I filmed ours the night before, and we were up all night editing them. Perry got hers in on time, but mine uploaded a minute after the deadline, luckily it was still considered a valid entry! The show itself was at the Cafe de Paris in London; on the day we got ready backstage with the queens (it felt very much like drag race!), had various rehearsals, then the competition consisted of a runway, lipsync, and question round. The competition itself was of course stressful but it definitely was a great experience.
“I see being Rujazzle as not being a character but just an aspect of Ruairidh that’s a bit more sparkly.”
Did you get to perform in front of RuPaul?
Unfortunately not. I didn’t make it through to the lipsync round. I only made it to the runway because they eliminated over half the queens during the first round, and we were eliminated by that point. I never expected to be competing against such amazing queens such as The Vivienne and Anna Phylactic. A part of me felt guilty that I was a finalist and such established queens like Cheddar wasn’t. Cheddar is one of the most sickening queens in the entire world. It was very cool to be on stage and have RuPaul sitting right there. One thing I was sad about was we never actually got to meet RuPaul. He was amazingly professional and came in and did the show. He’s a legend and I think if I was that famous I’d be a diva too.
How did you decide what to wear for the competition?
We literally had one week to prepare and, being a poor student, I didn’t have time to go out and order a custom gown. I wore something I made myself. Looking back, I felt that it was pretty ratty but it was fine. I was going for a sort of Huntsman, highland look. I wanted to be Scottish but not stereotypically so, and I focussed more on influences from Vivienne Westwood, high fashion plaid. RuPaul laughed when I pretended to shoot him with my gun so that’s something at least.
“You know its funny because one of Lily Savage’s TV shows was being shown on TV in the hospital room when I was being born!!”
In a recent article you wrote for The Saint (a University of St Andrews Student publication) you described drag (and gender expression of all kinds) as going through something of a “renaissance”. Do you feel that there is a cultural shift in the way that drag is received now?
Yes, definitely. I think like any art form it goes through periods of being in vogue. I think its last peak was around the mid 1990s I would say. It’s mad to think that someone like Lily Savage had a primetime TV show in full drag in the 1990s. You know its funny because one of Lily Savage’s TV shows was being shown on TV in the hospital room when I was being born!!
I do think that Drag Race has had a huge impact on the way drag is perceived. It has made it much more human and relatable and not so weird and niche, which it still is. Drag race’s significance lies in the fact that it shows the queens as human, well rounded people who aren’t some kind of weird cross dresser but is just doing a type of job. At the end of the day, its fun and you’re being there to make people happy. That’s why I love doing drag. People say to me all the time that Mothertucker is the highlight of their week, that they enjoy coming. It makes them happy. That’s what drag is there for, to bring joy.
Looking at pop culture from the 80s and 90s, drag artists and “gender benders” seemed to be more visible on TV and in the music industry. Thinking about now do you think that, with regards to media presence, drag and other forms of gender expression have been excluded from the mainstream media?
That’s an interesting point actually, I’ve never really thought about it before. I suppose you could look at someone like Lady Gaga who expresses her gender in a way that is very creative. But there aren’t a lot of men who are like that.
Exactly! We always think of the 21st Century as being a liberal era, based on a philosophy of equality, however if we look to the media for positive images of gender expression they appear to be significantly lacking.
Maybe part of the reason why artists such as Boy George, Marilyn or Pete Burns were able to become successful was due to the popularity of the New Romantic scene of that time. It was a follow on from the punk era, where it was meant to shock, so maybe we’ve moved past that in a way. Perhaps the artists aren’t interested in expressing themselves in that way. It’s an interesting point and I’m not sure why. It may change, we may be going through a period where media is quite bland. There are some American examples, Adam Lambert who is a bit more androgynous, or Jeffree Star. The only UK artist I can think of recently was Seann Miley Moore who recently appeared on X Factor. I also think within gay culture there’s still stigma attached to being feminine. A lot of gay guys are put off wearing makeup or acting in a way that might compromise their ‘masculinity’.
“A lot of gay guys are put off wearing makeup or acting in a way that might compromise their ‘masculinity’“
Do you think there should be a Glasgow based reality drag show, in a similar vein to The Drag Queens of London?
Yes, absolutely!! Theres lots of stories to be told that are not being shown to the Glasgow public.
Would you like to be featured on the show?
You know, I have this fear on any reality show that I would be given a really bad edit. I think someone like Lacy would be a fan favourite because she’s got a really cute personality, but I think I would come across as a bitch. I just know I’d get the Roxy Andrews edit. But I’m a sweetheart really.
You can find Rujazzle every Tuesday at 9pm for Mothertucker in Katie’s Bar. With free entry and an amazing performance every week, there’s no excuse not to go, folks!!!!!!
SICKENING GLASGOW 