When a show starts off with a bodacious drag queen performing “Big, Blonde, and Beautiful” and “Bootylicious” with gyrations that put Beyonce herself to shame, you know it’s going to be good.
On April 8, Physicians Auditorium was the backdrop for “We Are Family,” an LGBT talent show that its coordinator, junior Jonathan Greene, hopes to make an annual event.
The show united C of C’s large but scattered LGBT community for a lineup that included talent from the College and special guests.
Drag queens Jazlyne LeFaris and Gabriel Nietz from Columbia, S.C. brought their professional experience to fierce and fabulous versions of Pink and Rihanna. Hilarious (and homosexual) stand-up comedians Cordez Simmons and Blake Singleton shared stories about growing up gay and their attempts to find true love.  (“It turns out Blake was really Claire … Hey, even homosexuals experiment.”)
Drag kings made our beds rock and rapped about beautiful girls all over the world.
The diverse talent elicited more than a few catcalls from the audience, but the real show-stopper is what the show stands for: The $5 suggested donation, and dollar-bill tips the drag queens worked out of the audience are all for “We Are Family,” the Charleston area’s only LGBTQQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning) support group specifically for ages 16-23.
Greene coordinated the show for an activism project for his women’s and gender studies class.
These projects include “wage-gap” bake sales, where women pay $0.75 for goodies and men pay $1.00, hosting guest speakers and volunteering for local initiatives such as People Against Rape’s “Take Back the Night.”
Greene decided he wanted to do the fundraiser “We Are Family” Talent Show as his project, and received support from the women’s and gender studies department and C of C’s Gay-Straight Alliance.
For the past month, Greene has been organizing performers and the venue and getting the word out.
“I think these activism projects … are part of education that is actually hands on, instead of being in class and lecture all day learning about a definition. I’ve learned networking, communication and leadership skills,” says Greene.
But besides learning lessons himself, Greene hopes that the talent show educated others, especially the heterosexual community.
“Between the heterosexual male community and the LGBT community, there is definitely a separation, and I kind of want to mesh that … break the stereotypes and educate the heterosexual community,” he says.
The show also promoted safe-sex practices and HIV testing for everyone, regardless of orientation, with Gabriel Nietz passing out condoms during her rendition of Ke$ha’s “Your Love is My Drug,” and distributing business cards for finding HIV testing centers during intermission.
Greene hopes that his experience organizing the project will inspire others.
“It’s work, but it’s such a wonderful learning experience. I’d take what I’ve learned from this over core classes any day. I encourage everyone to take an activist project. You can take any dream you have and get there if you want it.”