Dazzling Drag returns to UTD

LGBTQ+ diaternity brings back drag performances with "Among The Stars" to finish off fall semester

Chi Alpha Iota (XAI) diaternity’s annual drag show returned this fall in a night filled with dazzling costumes, charitable donations and energizing performances.

Featured performers from the genderinclusive Greek organization spoke with The Mercury about their experience planning and putting on an in-person show in these chaotic times, as well as what drag – an art form exploring the performative nature of gender presentation – meant to them personally. Psychology senior Beck Da Jose, performing as Sin Diesel, said that different drag personas were like different panels in a stained glass window, all forming one work of art.

“There’s a shining light that you are,” Da

Jose said. “Who I am normally and who I am in the drag show… they are all extensions of me, they’re just played up in different ways.”

XAI members develop their own characters, building personas from an understanding of who they are and how they want to present on stage. The performers spoke out against misconceptions people tend to have about drag—it isn’t just for cis men, for instance, who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

“Historically and accurately speaking, it’s very trans-dominated, there’s a lot of people of color – but unfortunately the media focuses on the pretty, cis men acting catty that they can market… drag is an art form, and people should be more respectful of it,” biology senior Alex Xavier said. “It’s a queer celebration.” They emphasized the openness of drag to anyone who wants to perform- personas need not even disagree with the performer’s offstage gender identity.

For mechanical engineering senior and XAI President Natasha Rahman, her character Delta was an extension of her own masculinity. There isn’t a codified set of rules to follow for drag identity. Rahman put an