The International Drag Day is an annual event on July 16 that aims to celebrate and recognize the Drag art all around the world. [1]
The International Drag Day is an annual event on July 16 that aims to celebrate and recognize the Drag art all around the world. [1]
The International Drag Day was founded by Adam Stewart in 2009 through his fan page for Drag queens on Facebook, [2] with a main objective to provide Drag artists with the space to expose their creativity and culture in a proper way. [1] In an interview Guidetogay.com, Adam describes the event saying:
"International Drag Day is a day where all around the world on every gay scene we take this opportunity to celebrate and thank the drag artists that add so much to gay life and culture. This is the reason I launched this concept. I saw that there was no such day or event on an international platform in which we celebrated drag artists." [2]
In 2017's edition, the BBC's weatherman Owain Wyn Evans gives drag queen-themed forecast and pays tribute to drag queens and RuPaul's Drag Race as a way to show support for the celebration. [3]
In addition to the artistic shows and performances, the event hosts discussions and debates about the Drag artists rights and situation in different countries, the role of the Drag community in the LGBT movement, feminism and other topics by sharing experiences from daily life. [4]
Guidetogay.com was the main media partner for the annual celebration back in 2009 as one of its biggest channels to communicate the concept and spread it worldwide.
Feast of Fun, the Chicago based talk show, helped promoting the event also by ensuring a podcast where Fausto Fernós, Marc Felion and the drag queen Elysse Giovani discuss the activities held.
In Australia, the Stonewall Hotel was a big logistic partner for one of the editions and hosted a huge event to celebrate the day. [2]
Also in Australia, local LGBTIQ+ publication, A Modern Gay's Guide [5] covered the activities happening across the Pacific to support and celebrate, including the aforementioned Stonewall Hotel event. [2]
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of gay culture.
LGBT tourism is a form of tourism marketed to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. People might be open about their sexual orientation and gender identity at times, but less so in areas known for violence against LGBT people.
A female queen, diva queen, or hyper queen is a drag queen who identifies as a woman. These performers are generally indistinguishable from the more common male drag queens in artistic style and techniques.
Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that plans and produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work previously done by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee organizers of the first NYC Pride March in 1970. HOP also took over responsibility for the operations of NYC's Pride festival and Pride Rally. It was that first march which brought national attention to 1969's Stonewall Riots. The late sixties saw numerous protests and riots across the United States on many social injustices and from general political unrest including the war in Vietnam.
Pollyfilla is a drag queen originally from Wellington, New Zealand. The drag persona of Colin McLean, Pollyfilla, through the years has become well known not only to Wellington's queer community, but the wider community and New Zealand as a whole, performing regularly at social and community events, attending LGBT rights rallies, entertaining on stage, film and television, as well as being the mainstay for drag entertainment at Wellington's popular gay venue POUND Nightclub and Bar.
The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. Among the largest Pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. The route of the Pride parade through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing the Stonewall National Monument, site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights. It is also the largest Pride parade in the United States.
In gay slang, queen is a term used to refer to a flamboyant or effeminate gay man. The term can either be pejorative or celebrated as a type of self-identification.
Atlanta Pride, also colloquially called the Atlanta Gay Pride Festival, is a week-long annual lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) pride festival held in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1971, it is one of the oldest and largest pride festivals in the United States. According to the Atlanta Pride Committee, as of 2017, attendance had continually grown to around 300,000. Originally a pride held in June, Atlanta Pride has been held in October every year since 2008, typically on a weekend closest to National Coming Out Day.
Nea Marshall Kudi Ngwa better known by his stage name BeBe Zahara Benet, is a Cameroonian-American drag performer, television personality, and musician best known for winning the first season of the reality-television drag competition RuPaul's Drag Race in 2009. In 2018, he returned as a surprise contestant for the third season of RuPaul's Drag Race: All Stars, placing in the top four.
Petter Wallenberg is a multi-awarded Swedish artist, author, director and human rights advocate. He is the founding director of Bland drakar och dragqueens, a multi-awarded theatre production where famous drag queens perform stories to children. Petter is also the founding director of Rainbow Riots, an award winning non-profit organisation that uses arts and culture to advocate for human rights for LGBT people globally. He has composed and produced several critically acclaimed music albums and in 2013 book "Historien om Leila K" was released in Sweden.
The Gay Liberation Monument is part of the Stonewall National Monument, which commemorates the Stonewall uprising of 1969. Created in 1980, the Gay Liberation sculpture by American artist George Segal was the first piece of public art dedicated to gay rights and solidarity for LGBT individuals, while simultaneously commemorating the ongoing struggles of the community. The monument was dedicated on June 23, 1992, as part of the dedication of the Stonewall National Monument as a whole.
New York City has been described as the gay capital of the world, and is home to one of the world’s largest LGBTQ populations and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rise buildings, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated metaphorically, “Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer.”
Austin, Texas has one of the most prominent and active LGBT populations in the United States. Austin was acclaimed by The Advocate in 2012 as part of its Gayest Cities in America, and was recognized by Travel and Leisure as one of America's Best Cities for Gay Travel. Much of Austin's gay nightlife scene is clustered around 4th Street. LGBT activism groups Atticus Circle and Equality Texas are headquartered in Austin.
Owain Wyn Evans is a Welsh broadcaster and drummer. He is a radio DJ and TV presenter, and previously a weather presenter on North West Tonight and BBC Breakfast. Evans is also a regular item presenter for the television magazine and chat show programme The One Show.
Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was a series of LGBTQ events and celebrations in June 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. It was also the first time WorldPride was held in the United States. Held primarily in the metropolitan New York City area, the theme for the celebrations and educational events was "Millions of moments of Pride." The celebration was the largest LGBTQ event in history, with an official estimate of five million attending Pride weekend in Manhattan alone, including an estimated four million in attendance at the parade. The twelve-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups.
The New York City Drag March, or NYC Drag March, is an annual drag protest and visibility march taking place in June, the traditional LGBTQ pride month in New York City. Organized to coincide ahead of the NYC Pride March, both demonstrations commemorate the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn, widely considered the pivotal event sparking the gay liberation movement, and the modern fight for LGBT rights.
Industry Bar, or simply Industry, is a gay bar and nightclub in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Owned by Bob Pontarelli, it is a sister establishment to Barracuda, a gay bar, and Elmo, a restaurant. Industry opened in 2010 and caters primarily to a crowd of young gay men and tourists. Its musical selection is mostly pop, and its live entertainment consists of a number of weekly drag shows, many of which are hosted by internationally recognized drag queens. New York City nightlife journalists frequently note Industry as one of the top gay venues in Manhattan.
Lesbian Visibility Week is an annual observance in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries dedicated to increasing the awareness of lesbian women and their issues. It was originally celebrated in July in 1990 in California, and more recently in April, starting with Lesbian Visibility Day on April 26. It has been celebrated in England and Wales.
LGBT Pride Month is a month, typically in June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride. Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969, and has since spread outside of the United States. Modern-day Pride Month both honors the movement for LGBT rights and celebrates LGBT culture.
