Students are gay for Pride Fest USC

McCarthy Quad was adorned with Pride flags and tents Thursday as USC’s Pride-Fest returned following a two-year hiatus prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The event featured tents run by students and LGBTQIA+ organizations from around Los Angeles, two areas for taking photos with Pride flags and a rainbow-painted closet door as props and performances from professional and student drag performers.

Shane Dimapanat, a sophomore majoring in journalism and the organizer of Pride Fest, opened the event alongside drag group United Queendom and President Carol Folt. 

Folt emphasized the importance of events like Pride Fest and the hard work that went into it. She acknowledged the progress already made for LGBTQIA+ equality but said that while “we certainly are not where we were 50 years ago, that does not mean we want to be where we are now even five years ahead. This is a moment to continue that push.”

The event featured a gender-affirming clothing swap that gave students the opportunity to donate unneeded clothes and pick up something new. 

Celia Bartel, a senior majoring in political science and public policy and co-director for USC’s Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment, said they intended for the clothing swap to help support trans and nonbinary students at USC. Bartel said they hope people came away from the display understanding the diverse ways people can express and explore their gender identity. 

“There is no one way to present one’s gender and you should never assume one’s gender identity based on how they present,” Bartel said. “People have the right to present any way that makes them feel comfortable, we just want to make sure we support them.”

Drag queens took center stage at Pride Fest, with USC students dancing and lip-synching alongside United Queendom.

Ra Oblivion, a sophomore majoring in design, performed in drag at the event and said that she hoped to bring to light a more alternative side of drag on campus.

“I wanted to bring a little bit of both a more avant-garde take to drag and a more alternative take to drag than the mainstream version,” Oblivion said. “I also wanted to present a bit of transness, too.”

Daisy Darling, a sophomore majoring in English literature and East Asian languages and culture, also took to the stage in drag. They said that USC had an incredibly rich drag scene, which they felt lucky to be able to celebrate at Pride Fest.

“A lot of people don’t know that we [USC]  actually have the largest national drag program for any college,” Darling said. “There is a really rich, strong community at USC, and events like this help uplift and showcase our talent. So I’m so grateful as well I got to be a part of it.”

They said community members have another opportunity to see USC drag performers soon: the USC Drag Show will be Jan. 28, and 12 performers will be featured. 

Darling was joined on stage by Willconique, a freshman majoring in theater, who performed live in drag for the first time on Thursday.

“I was invited by Miss Daisy Darling to perform, and I’m very grateful to get to showcase myself and my talent here on my college campus,” Wilconique said. “This was my first time performing live in drag, and that was a milestone for me. I’m grateful to be able to have this opportunity, and it’s thanks to Miss Daisy Darling and it’s thanks to being here at USC in a culture that supports LGBTQ+ students and people.”

The Graduate Student Government, the USC Department of Gender and Sexuality studies and several other organizations all had booths at the event. 

Reach LA, an organization dedicated to uplifting LGBTQIA+ people of color, also had a table. Shyanne Lindsay and Sandy Nguyen, community health specialists for Reach LA, spoke about the various events the organization is planning, such as ‘Prep 4 A Pageant,’ a pageant highlighting trans women of color that will take place on Dec. 11. 

Dimapanat said that the main goal of Pride Fest was to give LGBTQIA+ students a sense of community and belonging.

“The vision for it was creating a safe space where people, especially queer people, [can] come just to enjoy themselves as queer people,” Dimapanat said. “We need to build community here. Oftentimes, it can feel that as a queer person, you’re alone; very desperate. But the thing is, there’s a lot of people like us, so we want to make an event to make that much more clear.”

Dimapanat also noted that showing unity with transgender people was a priority when they planned the event.

“[The event] was mainly about solidarity. That’s why I invited the drag queens over, especially because lately there’s been more attacks on trans people,” he said.  

He emphasized that he wanted to showcase that drag queens were not the dangerous people some Republicans portray them as. “They’re just humans, they’re just people,” he said.