Watching time: 5 min 56 seconds, transciption from beginning to 2:23, when the performance begins.
Reading time: About 3 minutes
This video was taken in the summer of 2019. It was the last time my Chaplaincy cohort would gather in person, although of course none of us knew that yet.
In my introduction to the performance I share how I came out at a young age, four years before I could legally go to a gay bar. For those four years, attending the Pride parade and festival was the only time the whole year where I could be in community.
Turning eighteen didn’t change my longing to see sustainable safe spaces for queer kids to connect with one another more than just once a year. I created the Miscellaneous Youth Network in 2004, and in 2005, after returning from a trip to Australia where I performed in drag for the first time, I set up the first ever Fake Mustache drag show.
Drag has brought me joy since the first time I did it. I have always been a playful sort of person and Drag is all about playing with gender. It’s also a fun way to share ones’ favourite music.
Buddhism has also brought me so much joy, although I haven’t always been able to be my full self in Buddhist spaces. This video, however, captures a moment when my fullest self was not only present, but celebrated.
At the moment it feels difficult to celebrate while knowing about multiple ongoing genocides in the world. It’s hard to celebrate when a lot of queer spaces have no masking requirements, meaning those of us with chronic illnesses and compromised immune systems can’t safely participate. It’s also hard to celebrate when we are worn down and emotionally drained and needing to focus on self care.
But self care is also community care. It’s important, necessary, even, that we share moments of joy, of love, of delight and wonder. These are the things that fill us back up, that sustain us in the work. And so I thought I would post this video in which an entire Zendo of people1 dance and clap along to a drag performance in the same space where we spent so much time in stillness and relfection. I share it with you today as a gift of Queer Joy this June.
May it be of benefit.
Seated at the back of the Zendo is Roshi Joan Halifax. When I chuck the flower during the interlude, she catches it. If you watch the video closely, she can be seen dancing with it in her teeth, which never fails to bring me joy.
Drag in the Zendo