Pride Week wraps up with ‘Dragstravaganza’
Last week, members of the LGBTQIA community celebrated Pride Week at Elon University. Spectrum, Elon’s LGBTQIA awareness organization, had held events all week and this year they ended it with a Dragstravaganza: a drag show with different students performing as well-known artists.
“I am most nervous for tripping and falling on my face,” said Robbie Linklater, vice president of Spectrum.
Linklater dressed up as Shaqueera and danced to “Hips Don’t Lie.”
Bustin Jiebers, Every Direction and many more groups at Taphouse joined him on Friday night. The event also included a drag contest with mocktails, free food, group dancing, dance competitions for Smitty’s gift cards and two random audience members battling for gift cards to The Root.
“I am most excited to dance around and have fun and not care about what people are thinking,” Linklater said Wednesday night before Friday’s performance.
Performers dressed in drag to raise awareness for Spectrum and what it’s like to identify as LGBTQIA.
Spectrum put on the show for Pride Week to help raise awareness about what it is like to be LGBTQIA and to show that Spectrum is an organization where everyone is welcome. Linklater feels that his experiences with Spectrum show that it is more than just being in a club.
“I think it definitely made me a better person, a more aware person and it has definitely made me feel better about myself,” Linklater said. “It has been a really great experience and I cannot imagine college without it.”
And Linklater isn’t the only one who feels this way. Co-Event Coordinator of Spectrum and performer Jaden Wilkes is an active member in the LGBTQIA community. Wilkes was born as a female but identifies as a male. He says that he is glad he joined Spectrum because he feels he has made a much-needed difference at Elon.
“It has really given me a lot of opportunities to be involved with the LGBTQIA community at Elon and it feels like I have been making somewhat of a difference,” Wilkes said.
He also explained how he plans on possibly continuing this experience in the future.
“I have actually always wanted to be in drag shows,” Wilkes said before the show. “I just never had the opportunity so I am hoping that if everything goes well tonight that I can continue doing it semi-professionally.”
Both Linklater and Wilkes enjoyed the experience of the drag show and are hoping that Spectrum will do more events similar to this one in the future. They both also talked about changes to Spectrum.
“This year we are definitely trying to create more of a community, one where people can feel accepted and safe,” Linklater said.
Anyone interested in Spectrum is welcome to attend the group’s meetings in Lindner 102 every Thursday at 7p.m.
