Shake it off: Rainbow Alliance hosts drag show

Wondering what clothes to wear, Dylan Dickhersoon consulted the audience on whether it preferred red or black before he left the stage to slip into something more comfortable.

Ten minutes later after the crowd shouted back “black,” Dickhersoon, a gender performer, returned to the stage in the William Pitt Union ballroom on Friday wearing nothing but a tight, black thong and said, “Aren’t you glad you chose black?” 

For the final event of last week’s Pride Week, Rainbow Alliance’s annual spring “celebration of all things queer” and self-expression, the group hosted its 15th annual Drag Show at 8 p.m. The night featured 10 local drag queens and gender performers, who do not identify as either king or queen, as well as a drag king. The performers danced under stage names and represented the University community and Pittsburgh as a whole. More than 500 students packed into the audience and supported the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force by throwing dollar bills onto the stage. 

Rainbow Alliance donated the night’s proceeds to the task force, which offers free HIV testing, as well as legal and counseling services for those living with HIV. The Alliance collected $1,126 by the end of the night, roughly $400 more than last year, according to President Allie McCarthy.

Former Pitt student Dickhersoon, who graduated in 2011, and his fiance, Jackson Nite, who graduated from West Virginia University in 2012, hosted the event.

“Look where my University of Pittsburgh degree got me,” Dickhersoon said, gesturing toward his new metallic blue thong.

The two emcees held nothing back, making jokes about cheating on each other with straight, male audience members and throwing shade at their alma maters, as well as at the audience. 

“How many straight people in this crowd?” Dickhersoon asked at the beginning of the night. “Did you get here by mistake, or did your gay best friend bring you here?” 

McCarthy and drag show coordinator Brandon Benjamin, a senior, opened the event with introductory remarks and emphasized the importance of the evening’s charity.

Rainbow Alliance invited the performers, including 22-year-old amateur drag queen Tess Trojan — who was adamant in her support of the task force — to participate in the night.

“I know people who have died from AIDS,” Trojan said. “I make a point to get tested every three months.”

Trojan, who has been performing in Pittsburgh as a drag queen for two years, said she found the stage after battling depression and drug addiction. 

Her friends convinced her to perform for the first time at a charity event when she was 20 years old, and she said she “threw on the most modest heels, performed and loved it.” 

Trojan and the rest of the queens encouraged the audience to “show [them] the money” several times throughout the night.

Students charged the stage with dollar bills between their teeth and tucked money into performers’ dresses and stockings. 

While Benjamin used his shirt to wipe away the glow-in-the-dark paint that Dickhersoon spilled on the runway during his performance with Nite, the performers maneuvered around him and the slippery mess in three-inch heels.

The most experienced stage presence in attendance was local favorite Thea Trix, who, at 40 years old, has been performing drag for 21 years and holds 14 drag competition titles.

“Every part of my life focuses around pride,” Trix said, adding that the energy in the ballroom was “off the charts.” 

The crowd was particularly raucous during “Lip-Sync for Your Life,” a competition that included five Pitt students the emcees chose from the audience. The participants lip-synched and danced along to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” battling it out for a Rainbow Alliance T-shirt as a prize.

Fuchsia XYZ, who wore a homemade gold-sparkled gown over a black leotard, said she thrives off the crowd’s energy while performing. 

“It’s really a vent for self-expression. Everybody has your attention,” Fuchsia XYZ said. “You sing in the shower, by yourself in front of the mirror, but you can do that here.”

Other performers for the night included Damien Frost, who recently placed 11th in a national pageant, Sugar Sweet, who the emcees described as their “resident lesbian,” Divauna Diore and Jimmy Danger.  

Students lingered in the ballroom and dressing room, where the tables were littered with makeup and wigs, after the performances to take pictures and chat with the performers.

Despite the admiration of many fans in the ballroom that night, Trix said being a gay person has caused her trauma in the past.

“[That’s why] every time I perform out there, I hope I touch somebody,” she said.