KINGS & QUEENS

KINGS & QUEENS OF THE WESTERN SLOPE

: EOWYN LARSONWORDS

: BRENNA RHINESSPHOTOS

: JESSICA TODDART

T

Kandrii Zavalla applies makeup before a drag show.

OPPOSITE & ABOVE:

The drag scene in the Grand Valley may be niche, but it includes an array of remarkable performing artists.

“Grand Junction is a great community to grow in. [The LGBTQ+ community] is becoming more accepted and noticed here,” drag queen Onyx Rose said.

While the drag community is tied to the LGBTQ+ community, they aren’t necessarily the same thing. Drag began to popularize as a more mainstream form of art and entertainment in the early 1900s in Prohibition-era nightclubs before evolving into today’s modern form of drag.

Drag is a performance art that typically features a person dressing up in extravagant outfits and makeup, with performers often dressing as the opposite of their identified gender. Often performing in clubs, bars and contests, it’s an art form that utilizes dancing, lip syncing and comedy.

Javie Saenz, a local drag king, is a resource and ally for both the LGBTQ+ community and drag performers in the Grand Valley. Saenz runs Delta Pride and is the promoter for the Grand Valley Shining Star Pageant.

“The youth is basically what it’s always been [about] for me,” Saenz said. “Watching them grow and being a leader for them, showing them that they can be whatever they want to be [through drag]. I give them a safe place to perform, to be whoever they want to be on stage.”

Rose has been doing drag for the past four years after his roommate got him involved in a Las Vegas competition called Breakout Star, while Saenz started experimenting with drag at eight years old alone in his room. Saenz

was assigned female at birth but transitioned to male after drag helped inspire him to transition.

To be clear, doing drag and being transgender are not the same thing, as many transgender people do not perform drag and never have, though there are transgender drag queens and kings, like Saenz.

“I completely underestimated how hard drag really is,” Rose said. “It takes a lot of practice and skill. Drag is really a jack-ofall-trades; you have to know how to do makeup, dance in heels, act, sew, design costumes, know your words on your songs, know how to pad your body to resemble a woman, know how to style hair. It's a lot to learn.”

For Saenz, drag has become so much more than putting on an alternate persona and performing on a stage. He helps the youth by giving them a safe space to perform and figure out how they

want to express themselves.

“I call them my children,” Saenz said. “I have plenty of drag children and a very large drag family.”

Delta Pride hosts drag shows and has featured performers ranging from 4 to 50 years old. During a Delta Pride celebration, a 13-year-old boy expressed his desire to do drag to a local drag queen from Rifle named Kandrii Zavalla. Drag kings and queens were notified throughout the celebration, and the boy was supplied with clothes, makeup and a wig, and he was able to go on stage. To Zavalla, this moment showed the strength of the western Colorado’s accepting community.

“I'm so thankful for Grand Junction. Other places don’t do drag like Grand Junction; it's super accepting,” Zavalla said.

However, there are still roadblocks to the drag scene. “The more political we get, the more people who are against what I am doing come out and say it,” Saenz said. He’s had the police threatened to be called on him for hosting ‘perverted parties.’ “They say they’re going to report me to the police for putting on these events and I say, call them — they usually are already there having a great time.”

How can one support the drag scene in Grand Junction? According to Saenz, just show up and support their events — there’s nothing else to it.

“This is a great way to show people that you can come out, have fun, see what we’re like, and meet a friend,” Saenz said. ▪