Lethbridge drag community striving for mainstream acceptance

“It is one way of expressing our fantasy or our dream through drag. Sometimes, in this kind of performance, I want to be this queen, I want to be this iconic. Maybe next number, I want to be like Beyonce, I want to be Jennifer Lopez – like I want to be some kind of iconic artist.”

Moving to Canada nine years ago and discovering his passion for drag was life-changing.

He grew up in the Philippines in an environment where most LGBTQ+ people were not publicly accepted.

According to Yutrago, many gay people there are comedians or other performance artists. Because of this, some members of the public see it as OK to view them as the butts of jokes and mockery.

Francheska is the name Yutrago’s schoolyard bullies used to call him when he was younger. He later chose to embrace the name as part of his drag persona.

In his home country, only a few people knew that he was gay, but it was an entirely different picture when he moved to the Great White North.

“Here in Lethbridge, I was shocked and happy that, look, we can be who we want to be. We have our own pride parade, we have our own bar, we have events for LGBT like drag and that really inspired me and motivated me to give me more confidence to come out of the closet and be open in the public.”

Yutrago has been part of the local drag scene for a few years now and has noticed it gradually growing.

In addition to doing performances at Didi’s Playhaus, the drag performers do occasional shows at the Pure Casino Lethbridge and are regular parts of pride parades. The Stoketown Cafe + Cure hosts viewing parties for Ru Paul’s Drag Race.

Still, the drag community is still a bit of an underground entity in Lethbridge as many people are not aware that it exists or to the extent that it does.

This is something Yutrago and other drag performers want to change.

He told LNN that there was an effort to start a program with the local school divisions where drag queens would come to schools and read stories to the children in their costumes.

Due to concerns from some parents, however, the program never came to fruition.

Yutrago wants to clear up the misconceptions about what drag is and is not.

“It’s just an expression – it’s just hair and makeup and a dress. I don’t think kids will think [a] drag queen is a bad person until some adult will give them that bad idea.”

“Children, they love arts, they love colours, they love artists. The kids, I don’t think kids will have that kind of negative idea towards the drag community.”

The other misconception about drag concerns gender. Yutrago says some people think that transgender and drag are the same thing, but while some transgender people do drag, they are different things.

For drag, anyone can dress in drag and perform in front of a crowd regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

Transgender, on the other hand, is when a person identifies as the opposite of their assigned sex at birth.

While Yutrago says Lethbridge is becoming more accepting of the LGBTQ+ community and of drag, certain segments of the city and some of the outlying communities are still not.

He believes it will take time to change peoples’ minds, but by being open and out in the public, he hopes to show that they are people, just like anyone else, who want to live their lives as they see fit.

Yutrago was recently featured on a CBC Gem program. You can watch it online here.

by David Opinko

Lethbridge drag community striving for mainstream acceptance

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