Gay-Straight Alliance event breaks down gender stereotypes
Women dressed up as men, men dressed up as women, some as neither gender, some a blend of both and everything in between Saturday night at Cache Valley Gay-Straight Alliance’s annual event, Gender Blender.
“It’s an event to raise awareness of breaking down gender binaries,” said Mel Austin, a senior in English technical writing and Utah State University’s Love Is For Everyone queer vice president. “Breaking down the stereotypes and allowing us to show there’s fluidity in gender and gender expression and everyday appearances.”
Gender Blender is an annual drag dance and contest hosted by the Cache Valey GSA. With this year’s theme, cosplay, guests were encouraged to come dressed in drag and as favorite characters.
“It’s lots of fun to dress up and do weird stuff and just have fun,” said Lee Austin, an undeclared sophomore. “Nobody caring what you show up as, and everybody sitting there going, ‘Wow, you look really good.’ Because, I saw like three or four people where it took me about five minutes of looking that them to recognize who the person was, and I’ve known them for three years.”
The Cache Valley GSA donated all proceeds collected at the non-USU affiliated event to LIFE, a campus club.
“They are two separate organizations,” Mel said. “USU LIFE is the social one, it’s the one to get to meet people, it’s the one to have fun and meet new friends, get to know things and do the social activities.”
The Cache Valley GSA hosts off-campus social activities that allow community members who are not a part of the university or who are not college-aged and feel isolated from the university to interact with other members of the community, Austin said. The Cache Valley GSA also works with the Ogden Outreach and the Utah Pride Center to bring people in from outside the valley.
“It’s a way for the university to not be affiliated with that but as well as for the students of the university to be affiliated with our state-wide organizations,” Mel said.
Held at the Bullen Center, Gender Blender included a drag contest, music, dancing, food and alcohol for those age 21 and older.
“Since we are the Cache Valley GSA, we are not USU affiliated,” Mel said. “We are not a USU club, we are not a USU organization, we are abiding by USU’s policy of no alcohol in parties or anything affiliated with the university. So we are able to have alcohol at our event and do a private donation to purchase alcohol at the event.”
The alcohol was served in 21-and-older section, which was designated and roped off so those who wanted alcohol could be checked for ID at the door and given a wristband.
“We’ve done everything possible to make sure that its only someone 21-plus who’s getting an alcoholic beverage,” Mel said.
The drag contest was divided into three different sections: Drag King, for women dressed as male characters; Drag Queen, for men dressed as female characters; and, for the first time, Drag Androgynous, for those who didn’t identify as either a man or a woman or were a blend of both could feel comfortable in participating, Melissa said. The idea for the new category came through a suggestion from the University of Utah.
“We talked to the U of U and they said that they really had a lot of people who identify as androgynous that would be more comfortable performing as drag androgyny,” Mel said. “We all met and went, ‘Oh, let’s do it.’ So that’s kind of where it came from.”
The drag contest was a favorite for many guests at the event and included a short performance from all the participants demonstrating their characters. Winners received donated items from Starbucks, a LIFE bumper sticker, LIFE underwear and a sash, while runners-up received the bumper sticker.
“My first year, I was Marilyn Monroe,” said Mark Tripp, a junior in psychology and runner-up of the drag queen contest. “The second year, I was a brunette bombshell, and then this year, a young version of Winifred Sanderson from Hocus Pocus. Actually, this is the first year I did not win. I’ve been the previous winner for the last two years, so I gave up my crown this year.”
Between 75 and 90 people participated, said Mel, and the food for the event was donated by Great Harvest Bread Co. and Herms Inn.
“It’s just fun with a big group of people,” Tripp said. “Just being a goof and having fun and joining together a community that’s kind of, outside of these doors, is a little hush-hush. It’s just fun to let those curtains draw back and just be who you are.”
— lormialor@gmail.com