LGBT group expresses itself with drag show

A guy dressed like Princess Peach? Check. A mesh-covered demon? Of course. A cluster of gyrating, panting women pushing the boundaries of performance art? Welcome to GenderF*ck.

The GenderF*ck drag show was hosted by GenderBloc, the University of Cincinnati LGBT student organization that focuses on transgender activism, Friday, Oct. 30.

The show took place at Catskeller as a fundraiser for TransOhio, a LGBT support group based in central Ohio.

“They do a lot of great things,” said Jason Bernstein, a fourth-year psychology student who organized the event. “They have conferences and they are very politically active.”

The show featured 11 acts, which included songs from Broadway musicals and popular artists. Approximately 10 students performed in the show, and many performed in more than one act.

“We’ve got people in three and four numbers,” said Chelsey Walters, a fifth-year fine arts and art history student. “We’re all over the place.”

The show opened with “What it’s Like,” which featured 10 performers, including KD Miller, a fourth-year special education student who went by the stage name “Heywood Jablowme” and Walters, or “Ben Dover.”

“The first act is a little more somber,” Walters said. “But it’s a good message: What would you do in the other person’s shoes?”

Other songs included “Popular” from the musical “Wicked” and “Magic Position,” which featured seven performers bumping and grinding and depicting oral sex.

Eric “Shadow Banks” Hilson performed a “Sweet Dream” remix, while Emily “Oliver Fist” Job changed into a variety of outfits for “Secret Agent Man.”

The wide range in acts kept the show interesting, Bernstein said.

“There’s a little bit of risqué-type things, there’s some fun numbers, there’s some more serious, political-type numbers,” Bernstein said. “So we have a whole array of things: Kings and queens and fems and everyone in between.”

The purpose of the GenderF*ck show is to promote GenderBloc and spread awareness about its mission.

“It’s a fun way to introduce people to drag shows,” Walters said.

For Miller, the show was also about gender expression.

“I like to mess with gender a lot and mess people up,” Miller said. “Make them go, ‘Wait, is that a boy or a girl?’ It’s the greatest thing to get people to question.”

For GenderBloc, the show was just the beginning of what is shaping up to be a busy year.
Plans include working with housing to make transgender housing more efficient and trying to establish gender-neutral bathrooms on campus, Bernstein said.

“We’re pushing to make UC a safer space for trans and gender-variant people,” Bernstein said.