Canceled: Supreme Drag Superstar

After complications with a venue, the event will not occur

JENNY HAN / ASST. NEWS EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

The annual Supreme Drag Superstar, USD’s annual drag show, was canceled for this school year. Typically, it entails educational speakers, the drag performance itself, and a reception for alumni and sub-donors to raise money for scholarships. It’s the second time in its duration since 2012 (the year that California’s Gender Nondiscrimination Act was enacted) that it has been canceled; the first time was in 2020 due to the pandemic. When the event was first announced, it initially got pushback; A prominent alumni created a campaign and a website titled “Alumni for a Catholic USD”, stating that it was inappropriate for a Catholic Institution to host a drag show. However, the petition failed and the former President Mary Lyons allowed for the event to run as long as there was an educational component and regulations on photography and videography. 

According to Dr. Greg Prieto, Associate Professor of Sociology who identifies as gay and Queer, it is typically a one of a kind of event unique to the USD Queer community. 

“It initially started as an effort to create space and community for queer students on our campus and the cultural mode that many of us are most familiar with, which was drag,” Dr. Prieto said. “It was originally a very controversial event on our campus and we’ve had various episodes of conflict over it, but I think the most important thing to know about it is that it is one of the largest and I think most popular student co-curricular events on campus.”

To Dr. Evelyn Kirkley, one of the faculty advisors for the event and an Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies who identifies as lesbian and queer, this event helps others talk about gender inclusivity. 

“We knew that this would be a way to affirm the queer community and to draw attention to the need to be more inclusive and more celebratory of its non-cis, Queer community,” Dr. Kirkley said. “I think the drag show is a way for Queer identified students to claim their place at USD, to claim their voice at USD, and to claim their power at USD.”

However, Dr. Prieto, Dr. Kirkley and the student committee ran into major issues trying to host the show this year. One barrier was their inability to secure a venue on time. 

“Initially, the reservation [for the venue: Shiley Theater] was canceled back in the fall, though; it wasn’t at the last minute,” Dr. Prieto said. “The student who made the reservation apparently didn’t do so with the right training or using the right tool [EVR] so it was automatically canceled as per the protocol of ASG. And when that happened, we had to kind of scramble to find a new venue because our original reservation had been booked by someone else. So I think that kind of threw us off in terms of our planning.”

In addition, the faculty advisors stated that there were also issues with recruitment and timing. They initially had only one performer confirmed and struggled with finding more performers. But by the time they found enough performers, both advisors thought there wasn’t enough time.

“Before the show, we have dress rehearsals, we have costume checks, we have choreography checks,” Dr. Kirkley said. There’s just all this stuff [that] it didn’t appear that we were going to be able to do, insufficient time to be able to put on a show that we want to, and the kind of show that we’ve had in the past.” 

Dr. Prieto and Dr. Kirkley also made it clear that the cancellation of this event wasn’t due to homophobic intent.

“The show has been the target of lots of homophobic criticism and assumption and I just don’t think this is one of those times,” Dr. Prieto said. “In fact, I’ve usually been the first one to say as much, but I can understand why students might have that perception given that history but I don’t know that that history necessarily applies in this case.”

Dr. Kirkley stated that in the future, they will be sure not to repeat these same mistakes in the future.

“We’re already planning to make sure everybody’s EDR trained, to make sure that we have the right reservation done, to confirm that we have the reservation several times before we put anything out for next year,” Dr. Kirkley said. 

Despite its cancellation, both faculty advisors emphasized the importance of the show to the USD community as a whole. 

“USD does a pretty good job of tolerance, but not always real inclusion and celebration and understanding of the value that our Queer identified students bring to this university,” Dr. Kirkley said. “It’s an opportunity to affirm that part of our community. And it’s also a part for our cis-gender and heterosexual community to really affirm their support for people who are outside of the what is called the norms of gender and sexuality.”

While the Supreme Drag Superstar show may have been canceled for this year, this event is important  for the LGBTQ+ community and is likely to be planned for next year.