Students and alumni from both the University of Michigan – Dearborn and Henry Ford College came together March 16, to enjoy the performances of eight professional drag performers at the university’s Kochoff Hall Student Center.
Emceed by Detroit’s own legendary Sabin, the event included dance routines by a myriad of LGBTQ performers using their stage names of Teddy, Bentley James, Desmond Desire, Lady Justice, Phoenix, Michael Christian, and Transa Genda.
Tyler Cooper, performing under the stage name of Sabin, is a nationally recognized and awarded drag performer who has been performing for 20 years. When in character, Sabin uses a variety of pronouns depending on the characterizations.
The performers came from Lansing, Rochester, Detroit and also included two students and an HFC alumni.
The event was organized by the university’s Center for Social Justice and Inclusion (CSJI).
The purpose of the CSJI “is to be an affirming, accessible, and inclusive space where learning and compassion is fostered through community and belonging,” according to the group’s webpage.
Bee Taylor, CSJI’s LGBTQ program manager, had been in their current position at the university for about nine months when they decided it was time to bring the drag show back to the campus after a three-year hiatus.
“It’s really important to have spaces where queer people can be joyous and create in a positive space, as many queer spaces are often associated with alcohol or drugs. And drag can be a place that allows a freedom of that and just an artistic expression. Dearborn has had the drag show here in some shape or form for the last ten years,” Taylor said.
Troy Gibson, the student success navigator and the advisor for the Sexual and Gender Acceptance Club (SAGA) at Henry Ford College, also helped Taylor organize the drag show event.
“SAGA is a LGBTQ plus club that is run by students, actually, and I’m just the advisor for students and allies. You don’t have to be LGBTQ to be part of the club, but you do have to be an ally in acceptance of the LGBTQ population,” Gibson explains.
An “ally” is a straight, heterosexual, or cisgender person who openly supports and encourages equal civil rights, gender equality and LGBTQ social movements.
“Drag shows are extremely important to not just college communities, but LGBT communities in general,” said Taylor. “Drag has been an important part of LGBT culture and Bi-POC or black indigenous people of color’s culture since the 1920s at the very least, but also dates back to Shakespeare.”
In both Shakespearian times as well as in feudal Japan, male actors often portrayed women on stage. Even before Shakespeare, the advent of men portraying women in theater dates to the ancient Greeks.
The role of women was to be subservient and stay in the home, therefore, dressing for the part, male actors would portray the feminine roles. In 17th century Japanese Kabuki theater, female actors had limited roles on stage and men who would often dress for and play those parts were called Onnagata.
Within the past several decades many male Hollywood actors also played female roles, often in comedic situations: to be able to work as musicians, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon dressed as women in “Some Like it Hot,” Dustin Hoffman took on the role as Dorothy Michaels in “Tootsie” to land a TV acting job and Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari dressed as women so that they could live in a low-rent apartment in the 1980’s TV show “Bosom Buddies.” And no one can forget former Bloomfield Hills resident Robin Williams as “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
“I think that drag is not inherently queer necessarily. Straight folks can do it, cisgender folks can do it. But I think the idea of playing with gender in a performance setting is somewhat queer in that what it is. The idea of queer is to question something, and by expanding your idea of gender and the way it’s performed, I think it does lend itself to being queer just in its nature,” Taylor said.
Recently, drag has become a politicized art form drawing objections from individuals who feel that seeing men dressed as women can have negative effects on children and society.
“We all meet trans-people in our daily life without ever knowing it. But for some people… the act of performing as another gender very publicly and being open about it is difficult (for those) who haven’t thought about gender too much. Whereas they assume that they don’t meet trans-people every day because they can’t see them,” said Taylor, whose pronouns are “they/ them”.
Twenty nine-year-old Desirae Tivaudo, performs as Desmond Desire and uses the pronouns “she, he and they”. Desmond performed as a non-binary or genderfluid cowboy, complete with a makeup goatee.
Growing up in Armada, Desmond first started performing drag around 2015 while attending Oakland University.
“I feel like some people just like to get mad at the idea of it and it frustrates them,” Desmond said. “So, then they take it out in a way because they don’t get it basically. And instead of trying to understand, they just question things about themselves, which makes them more frustrated.
Gibson is still trying to figure out why people are upset over drag shows.
“I still can’t figure out why people feel that they need to go against a certain group of people who aren’t hurting anyone. I do think that there’s so much more to worry about than a drag show when you have guns being brought into schools and shooting children,” said Gibson.
Gibson said that for the performers taking that stage, drag can be both freeing and illuminating. It is just an art form of expression that at the same time can be fun and entertaining, he said.
Taylor said that the more children and people are exposed to transgender individuals and drag shows, the more accepting they will become of things that may appear different.
“Even kids as young as three or four love it because it’s a beautiful performance,” Taylor said. “They always look amazing and very exaggerated. That is really great for little people’s development, but also young folks who are still coming into their identity.”
Desmond feels that performing on stage is both cathartic and creative. She said that seeing young kids in the audience inspired her.
“I think seeing (a drag show) at a younger age would have been really like eye opening and be like endless possibilities, basically,” Desmond said. “And you know, who doesn’t love a good show? I mean, music, dancing, the queens and kings are very talented. And then there are the outfits. I think it just shows the potential for creativity and like this kind of art form.”
Gibson said seeing children in the audience is a good thing.
“For a (kid) to come to a drag show, I’m encouraged by that. One has to understand some of the content that’s in a drag show, but at the same time they’re also being very open minded and want to raise their child with love and not hate. (When) you bring your child to a drag show, you’re really showing them the different cultures of life,” Gibson said.
In the audience of Thursday’s show were several children including Wallis, who identifies as transgender and attended the show with her mother.
After asking the show host, Sabin, a question about his dogs, Wallis was given a rubber duck dressed as Batman which Sabin was gifted by an audience member. Sabin later brought Wallis on stage to help announce the show’s final act.
Sabin works as a marketing director for an ophthalmologist practice.
“So, I’m a professional by day. And then I’m a professional by night, just in a completely different atmosphere,” Sabin said.
Sabin performs as an extravagant, flamboyant, and humorous grand dame with his trademark bald head, vibrant costumes and bold, exotic makeup.
Trained as a professional dancer and having studied dance at Grand Valley State University, Sabin traveled the country and the world finding opportunities to dance and perform with a multitude of famous singers and artists
“I started at the Academy of Performing Arts, and then I was able to work with several colleges and I was working at Blue Lake, a fine arts camp. I worked a little bit in New York and L.A., and then I was able to travel to Europe and work with several studios and companies in Europe,” Sabin said.
Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp is a nationally acclaimed, non-profit fine arts program located in Twin Lakes.
Then Sabin’s life was transformed following a suicide attempt after having been told he’d never dance again when he blew out a knee. While living in Orlando, Florida, trying to find happiness and a sense of self, Sabin decided to compete in an amateur drag event and won the competition.
Sabin launched his career as a drag performer and has been riding high ever since. He is also credited with starting “Drag Queen Bingo.”
The crowd at Thursday’s performance were enthusiastic and, at times, raucous. The performers would step off stage and engage with audience members, even accepting tips.
The applause and appreciation the audience showed for each performance inspires them to want to indulge the audience more, Desmond said.
“It was great! There was a lot of good energy from this group,” Desmond said. “I feel like everyone was excited. Everyone wanted to be there. And just the size of the group I think was awesome. Like it was a good amount of people, but not too big, not too small, like it was the right amount. And people feed off each other’s energies, you know?”
Cooper called Sabin his best character.
“Sabin is my greatest masterpiece and my biggest monster. So with Sabin, it gave me courage that I didn’t have as Tyler before. So those insecurities and things that I struggled with on a daily basis disappear when I perform behind a character that is kind of almost like a façade. Sabin kind of became my shield and it gave me strength where I didn’t have before,” Sabin said of his performance persona.
“When I’m on stage, most people are surprised when they meet me in a dressing room because I’m kind of withdrawn for the most part. I kind of sit in my corner, I get ready, and then when the music hits, I’m suddenly in character,” Sabin said.
Whereas on stage Sabin is an extrovert, at home with his dogs, he reverts back to Tyler, an introvert, and finds comfort watching a movie on his couch cuddled with his dogs.
Traveling and performing on a near constant schedule has been a strain on Sabin. He finds solace in his dogs, all of whom have Batman inspired names, and his mother with whom he is very close.
It takes over an hour and a half for Sabin to apply all of his makeup. The design is his own creation that culminates from having worked with and inspired by over 300 of his fellow entertainers.
Desmond has been performing with Sabin since she first started. Together they have learned to embrace drag as a theatrical tool to both perform and draw attention to events and occurrences.
“Drag is like a freedom of expression, you know, like gender expression. So, you can do whatever you want. I like how Sabin will bring in important points, like current events and talk about things that like, you know, this is what we stand for,” Desmond said.
