UP Babaylan holds ‘dragdagulan’ forum

UP Babaylan, the LGBTQ+ organization of the University of the Philippines Diliman and the oldest campus-based LGBTQ+ group in Asia, held the forum "Dragdagulan: RUvealing Filipino Drag Culture" on 12 December at Room 12 at the fourth floor of the Student Union Building at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City. The event was part of the Alternative Class Learning Experience program.

Speaker Andoy Gatchalian Evangelista discussed the intricacies and nuances surrounding Filipino drag culture. The panel discussion featured drag artists Aries Night, Liberty and Inah Demons, who shared their lived experiences. They highlighted the power of drag as seen in its transformative implications at the personal, political, cultural, and national level.

After the forum, Evangelista wrote his thoughts on his Facebook page: "When one says drag can be political, it implies a hierarchy of what kind of drag is political enough. I think we must expand what it means for drag to do politics. It does not have to be in-your-face political statements directed towards the state. All that is good. But politics is more than a critique of the state. It is a critique of even the most mundane forms of conservative structures and practices that constrain our personhood and stifle our liberation. It is political when an artist lip-synchs to a jazz version of 'Isang Linggo Pag-ibig' as she lowers down a series of colorful bikinis from underneath her sequined cocktail dress to her shins-one bikini for each day of the week. Yes, it is entertainingly humorous but it is also playfully blasphemous to sacred beliefs on femininity and sexuality. In its history, drag has always been an attempt to ridicule and subvert conservatism. And that is its broad politics. So, the next time you make distinctions between political and non-political drag, reflect on your idea of what constitute politics because you may end up excluding a whole range of 'political drag.'"