As Sasha Fierce jumped into a split in her shorts and heels, the audience screamed and applauded at Rainbow Pride Union (RPU)’s “Drag Through the Decades.”
On Friday, RPU celebrated the past five decades of drag with decorations and music ranging from Whitney Houston to Miley Cyrus at its 13th annual drag show.
Katrina, a professional drag queen from Merlin’s, a bar in Downtown Binghamton, hosted the event, which featured three professional drag queens, four student drag competitors and the Treblemakers, a Binghamton University a cappella group.
Dede Kupps, another professional, danced to Taylor Dayne, and started her performance with a slow song. She then changed the pace and got the crowd excited with a fast song as she removed articles of clothing.
Devon Duncan, a senior majoring in biological anthropology, performed as Sasha Fierce and danced to “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj. Duncan, wearing a crop top, shorts and high heels, won the student competition. The audience voted by applauding for its favorite performer, and the winner received a Galaxy S5 tablet.
Duncan said that performing was hard work, but a fulfilling experience.
“I like the fact that you can go out and be a different person and just strut your stuff and not care what other people think — it’s like being a character,” Duncan said. “The performers this year were great competitors so I knew that I had to take all of my tricks out of the bag and perform as best as possible.”
Third place went to Trina Notaro, a junior majoring in business administration, who performed as Cash May. Notaro said that drag is a fun way for people to express themselves and be applauded for their uniqueness.
“It’s freedom of expression and there’s no judgement so you can go out on the stage and the audience is always involved in what you’re doing and is always excited to see you perform,” Notaro said. “There’s no judging so you can go out in a thong if you wanted to or I could go out and be grabbing my crotch and no one would say anything because it’s a judgement-free zone.”
Special Events Coordinator for RPU Sherry Goldstein, a sophomore majoring in psychology, said that the drag show is entertaining, educational and open to anyone interested in performing.
“It’s a fun aspect of LGBT culture and it’s a great way to break gender barriers,” Goldstein said. “We advertise it a lot and we asked people from the Late Nite drag show. People usually contact us if they’re interested and we get their music and put them in.”
Adam Wilkes, an undeclared freshman, said that this was his first time seeing a drag show, and he was glad he came.
“It was very exciting to watch and a lot of the songs were a throwback so I really enjoyed it,” Wilkes said. “It was cool and the whole thing was very professional. It was my first time going and I liked it a lot; I would definitely go again.”