Lambda’s 13th Annual Drag Show this Friday promises to be big, bold, and better than ever. But students don’t have to wait until then to show their GLBT pride: The party has already started.
The Vanderbilt Lambda Association has been hosting its first ever Rainbow ReVU all week. According to Lambda’s president, Klint Peebles, Rainbow ReVU is a pride week that features socials, awareness events, and lectures in addition to the drag show. He refers to the week as "a celebration of the year’s efforts and the strides that have been taken by the GLBT community through devoted student leaders and a dedicated administration."
"Lambda and the Vanderbilt GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) community have often taken criticism for focusing on the drag show and promoting a stereotype," Peebles said. "Although drag is a legitimate art form and should be respected as such, I decided to begin the tradition of the Rainbow ReVU in order to publicize all aspects of the GLBT community – not just the drag show. Drag is a rejection of the cultural appeal for assimilation, but the GLBT community is a rich, vibrant, and certainly important culture that has so much more to contribute than just the art of drag."
The Rainbow ReVU began with Monday night’s Opening Party at the GLBT Resource Office on campus. Peebles was pleased with the party’s turnout.
"Although many students were hindered by several other prior commitments as well as housing selections, no less than 40 people, including Vanderbilt staff and community guests, visited the GLBT Resource Office," he said.
This year’s keynote lecture, "Queer Science" will be delivered tonight by Dr. Simon LeVay, a world-renowned neuroscientist in the debate on the biological basis of homosexuality. The lecture will be in Wilson 103 at 7 pm, and a reception in Wilson lobby will follow. Copies of Dr. LeVay’s book will be on sale, and he will be available for autographing.
Rainbow ReVU T-shirts are also available to the entire student body free of charge, and Lambda asks that students wear them this Thursday to show support for GLBT equality and awareness. Shirts will be available on the wall during lunch Wednesday-Friday and at all of the week’s events.
Wednesday, March 26
Dr. Simon LeVay Presents "Queer Science"
7:00 PM, Wilson 103
Reception and Booksigning to Follow in Wilson Lobby
Thursday, March 27
Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC)
6:30 PM, GLBT Resource Office
Refreshments Provided
Friday, March 28
13th Annual Drag Show, featuring Veronika Electronika
"Sharing Knowledge" Awareness Event
7:00 PM on Alumni Lawn
All Week
Lambda on the Wall from 11 AM – 1 PM
About DRAG and how it is offensive to those who are Transsexual.
I understand the point of using DRAG (dressed as a girl) to show noncompliance and to mock stereo types of society. Yet, when I see hag drag, drag, and gay men doing satire, whom are they mocking? Usually the situation is a vulgar and demeaning portrayal of those who are denigrated by the term "Tranny", or "She/Male", and worse "Chick with a Dick." As a transitioned Transsexual, MtF, I have to suffer an ongoing public perception, which drag shows continue to promote where we are all sex workers, perverts, and some kind of garish freaks. If one were to perform an offensively hostile comedy about the gay population there would be outrage, yet, when it is Transgender there is laughter.
How many students on campus walk in terror and stealth over their anomaly of anatomy and gender conflict. How many of the Transgender show smiles and inside want to die for the insult and callous treatment they receive. And for those who are transitioning, and do not have the ability to hide their situation it is a matter of facing mocking jeers, rejection, hate, and physical abuse or murder.
Transsexuals and Intersex....
Let us not confuse by unfair association those who have medical issues…
Every ten minutes a child is born, 1/2500, in which the doctor cannot determine the sex, or gender. This is not talking about homosexuality, but tragically a congenital condition of birth which can be caused by endocrine agents and chemicals. These children are Intersex; they are born into a life of not male or female. Likewise in similar fashion the Transsexual is identified with a Bioneurological congenital condition, and they too are locked into something not quite so clearly defined as male, or female. The best we can do is live as close to what we seem to believe we are. That may preclude the wants, and often ignorant and bigoted beliefs of others. In what case do we ignore this issue and abandon the children who now cannot hide? How can anyone continue in hate and prejudice so as to deny simple equality and justice? It is either time for change and understanding, or simply wheedle out the transgender element as inhuman and adopt the final solution as Hitler visualized? Not an easy thing to resolve, but one that is present and will not go away.
I can appreciate other’s opinions, and the freedom to express same, but I would hope all would be with regard to the children, teens, and emerging adults, and all who are not so fortunate to have been born by someone’s idea of “normal.” Yet as a Conservative, Christian, Parent, and “Transsexual”, law should be equal for everyone, or it is not fit for anyone. Equality and recognition are still a dream for many.