In June 2022, longtime San Antonio drag queen Lyn-Z Andrews emceed the city’s first Pride River Parade. This year, as a bill making its way through the Texas Legislature aims to prohibit drag performances, Andrews wondered whether a repeat performance would be possible.
“For a minute there we were kind of scared that I wasn’t gonna be able to do that,” Andrews said. But she’s still confirmed as the 2023 Pride River Parade emcee, and Bud Light is still the event’s sponsor despite facing backlash for its support of the LGBTQ community.
Even with the Legislature’s focus on transgender identity and drag performance, San Antonio’s drag performers and producers say the scene here is alive and well.
Kunstler Brewhouse recently hosted its annual Haus of X 4/20 show, a celebration of drag and cannabis cultures. The downtown Bonham Exchange nightclub continues its longstanding support of drag culture with weekly late-night shows. The Starlighter in the Deco District regularly hosts drag shows amid its array of music events and local vendors markets. Weekend drag brunches at the Paramour Bar and Picks Bar regularly sell out.
Andrews compared the current moment of prohibitive politics to an earlier American era.
“Drag is always going to be there,” Andrews said. “I mean, they tried to do Prohibition with alcohol, [and] nobody could get rid of that.”
Drag of many styles
Haus of X show organizer Joshua Lopez performs as Jez Extazy, refers to herself as a “drag cinematic monstrosity” and uses horror films as inspiration. For the Kunstler event, Extazy performed as a monstrous psychedelic mushroom, complementing fellow performer Serene Fantasea’s “nug” costume capped by a marijuana bud headdress.
Giomara Bazaldua performed as Sir Gio as part of Los MENtirosos, a group of drag kings, or drag performers who dress as men. Also in the lineup was Taryn Tino, identified by Bazaldua as AFAB, which stands for assigned female at birth and in drag refers to female drag queens who portray women.
Other less categorizable forms of drag fall under the all-inclusive term “drag things,” which allows for any nontraditional costumed, queer-expressive performance.
These alternative forms of drag emerged among a younger generation who felt the established norm of glamorous feminine-presenting drag queens too limiting, said Brian Hernandez, a drag house mother who performs as Miss Taint, transforming easily between devilish leather-corseted cowgirl to mangled horror victim queen depending on the performance.
Hernandez began organizing drag shows at various venues that hadn’t necessarily hosted such events before, with the notion that “all drag deserves a spot on a stage.”
Hernandez said, “I built a lot of safe queer spaces for new entertainers who … weren’t typically going in the route that San Antonio wants,” characterizing the norm as “pretty pageantry,” based on the prior generation’s drag standards.
All drag is valid, Hernandez said, citing a social media hashtag that emerged as an inside-the-scene encouragement of acceptance, and now takes on added significance as political pressures challenge the validity of performers and LGBTQ identity in general.
Prurient or wholesome?
These drag styles also upset the political narrative that drag is a form of “sexually oriented entertainment,” as stated in Senate Bill 12, currently being considered by the Texas Legislature.
The bill aims to prohibit “actual or simulated … sexual acts,” nudity in performance, and any performative act that “appeals to the prurient interest in sex,” particularly if witnessed by anyone under age 18.
What concerns drag performers in particular is broad language in the bill aimed directly at drag that would criminalize “a male performer exhibiting as a female, or a female performer exhibiting as a male, who uses clothing, makeup, or other similar physical markers and who sings, lip syncs, dances, or otherwise performs before an audience.”
Andrews takes issue with the underlying concept of the proposed legislation that drag is sexually oriented entertainment.
“Do we dress sexy at times? Yes. … Do we wear stuff that could be considered risque? Yes, we do. … I see that as no different than the Met Gala,” she said, referring to the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art event in New York notable for the elaborate costumery worn by celebrities.
Performers can take more risks with drag shows at bars and clubs with adult-only audiences but said they keep things at a “PG” or “PG-13” rating level for all-ages shows.
For Drag King Bilingual Storytime events, Los MENtirosos performer Jessica Hawkins changes her drag name from Gacho Marx to a more kid-friendly Nacho Marx.
Los MENtirosos are regularly invited by the Southwest Workers Union, the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and Jump-Start Performance Company to hold these events for children.
The April 21-22 storytime events at Jump-Start featured the award-winning children’s book We Are Water Protectors and focused on promoting “body positivity, inclusion, self-awareness, the protection of Mother Earth and pride in Mexican and Indigenous cultures and languages,” according to Hawkins.
In organizing their storytime events, the members of Los MENtirosos reflect on what might have helped them as queer children.
“What kind of representation would I have appreciated seeing,” she said. “That’s what we try to do, but in a very wholesome way.”
The art of drag
Heather Peña is a San Antonio hair stylist who appreciates the art of drag, evident in its fabulous fashions, gravity-defying hairstyles, expressive singing, deft lip-syncing and athletic dance moves.
Peña frequently attends drag brunches to celebrate life events such as birthdays or Galentine’s Day. “I’m the most happy when I’m at a drag show. We are all standing, clapping, dancing, singing — it’s a wonderful time. I just don’t know why somebody would want to put a stop to that.”
She said audiences might hear cursing or “boob jokes,” but the content isn’t sexual beyond sexy outfits.
Picks Bar co-owners Amber Hernandez and Jessica Marinez brought drag brunches to the North Side to fill a need, Hernandez said. They enlisted longtime producer Rey Lopez, appreciating the variety of performers involved in his shows.
“It’s just so entertaining, really theatrical,” she said.
Hernandez questioned those who would label drag shows as sexually oriented. “I would just question to see if they’ve actually been to one. I think people that say that probably haven’t really been to a drag show to see the art to it.”
Not a crime
The worries of organizers and performers were heightened after online harassment caused the Starlighter to cancel shows in December and during a subsequent protest of an all-ages drag show at the Aztec Theatre.
Seeing anti-drag protesters bearing assault weapons “was the scariest thing ever,” Brian Hernandez said during an April 26 panel discussion sponsored by the University of the Incarnate Word Stand Out Alliance. But LGBTQ supporters outnumbered anti-drag protesters 4-to-1, Hernandez said, and turned the moment into “a celebration of love and power.”
Showing up is important despite potential threats, Hernandez said, referencing the 1969 Stonewall protests that inspired the U.S. gay rights movement. “In times like these, if you look at history … you’ve got to be there for things like that.”
Andrews said, “I really, really hope that the younger generation sees this and gets inspired and gets out there and fights for their rights, and for the future of young LGBTQIA youth. … Drag is not a crime.”
Cristian Flores, who performs with Joshua Lopez as Serene Fantasea, marveled at the angry responses directed at the drag community. “It’s crazy [that] a little makeup and a few props will make people so pissed.”
But the harassment, threats and legislative bills can even embolden drag performers, Flores said, assuring that even if SB 12 passes, they’d continue by doing digital drag shows from their own room.
“I’m gonna keep doing what I’ve been doing,” Flores said. “I’ve been doing drag for eight years now, and honestly … the feeling hasn’t changed. I feel empowered.”
Overcoming trauma
Hawkins said drag is inherently political, in part because performers face societal scorn and rejection, and because of its irreverence toward sacred institutions.
“Being queer is scary. Being part of a culture that says ‘Look at me, look at me!’ is very, very scary. But at the core of it, it’s healing for us, we are able to laugh at [ourselves].”
Hawkins said “the whole goal of drag is to have fun,” but performers can address serious topics and take on overtly political issues if they choose to.
Los MENtirosos and Miss Taint’s House of Eternas joined on Saturday to present the “Kings and Things Do Queen to Drag Out the Vote” election awareness event at the Starlighter, advertising the show as “free and family-friendly.”
Activism comes naturally to some drag performers, such as Flores, who sees anti-drag attitudes as akin to racism he experienced as a young Mexican American growing up in Laredo.
“Drag queens and minorities have always been attacked. We’ve always been marginalized,” Flores said.
Drag performers often come to their profession after experiencing the trauma of rejection by family, friends, communities, and sometimes themselves, and say drag can be a means of overcoming trauma for performers and audiences.
Hernandez said drag performers “preach self-expression, liberation, creativity, and just being who you are. That’s what you’re gonna find at a drag show.”
Andrews said the drag scene anxiously awaits the results of the Texas Legislature’s actions and their potential effects on the livelihoods of drag performers and producers. But in the meantime, she will continue to produce her monthly shows at the Upper Deck Hotel and Bar on South Padre Island, and Brian Hernandez will forge ahead with House of Eternas, Haus of X and AFAB troupe Zombie Bazaar Panza Fusion shows.
Picks Bar plans to continue its popular drag brunches indefinitely despite SB 12, Amber Hernandez said.
“We’re not going to stop or let that … intimidate us. Every weekend, we sell out. Everyone enjoys it, everyone has a great time. I have customers that come in and they bring their moms or grandmas, or uncles or aunts. It’s just a lot of fun,” she said.
Asked to mention her favorite drag venues, Andrews said, “I don’t have a favorite place, because all of my favorite places — especially right now — are anywhere that has a drag show. Because you’re showing that you are open-minded.”
