https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/bay-area-drag-camp-18074207.php

Kiara, a 12-year-old from Santa Cruz, felt her nerves surge as she peered through the trees toward a large cabin, hearing the murmur of voices in the distance. 

Before arriving at the Young Actors’ Theatre Camp in Santa Cruz on the first weekend of April, she had spent all Friday daydreaming at school about what the drag workshop she had enrolled in would actually look and feel like. Would it unfold like an episode of “RuPaul’s Drag Race”? Would the other campers like her ideas? What if she just couldn’t keep up? 

“I didn’t have wigs or anything to bring. I had never done makeup before. And I was worried because I thought I’d be surrounded by people who’ve done drag for a while at the camp,” she said. 

Of the approximately 45 young people at the overnight camp, just seven had signed up for the drag curriculum. All seven (ranging in age from sixth to ninth grade) were first-time campers and had no drag training. “I started to ask around to others, and nobody had done it before,” Kiara said. “It just made me feel a lot more at ease.” 

Attending the camp was an evolution of Kiara’s own experimentation at home, including dressing up in feminine looks and leaning into fluid gender expression, says her father, Andrew. He felt a tinge of nerves about the camp.

“But as soon as I got there, met the camp leaders and saw Kiara’s excitement, I think I started to feel at ease that this was the right place,” Andrew said.

‘It is about us thriving’

Drag has a long place in the arc of American performing arts and played a crucial role in empowering gay men, but in recent years has come under fire from conservatives who have equated the art form (and any other sort of gender subversion) with “grooming” and “pedophilia,” resulting in intimidating protests against “drag story time” events at public libraries and noisy backlash at schools. Lawmakers in Tennessee went so far as restricting public drag performances, though a federal judge has temporarily blocked the law.

The YATC event was no different: An inflammatory article by the Daily Mail and a campaign by the notorious far-right influencer LibsofTikTok led the organization to receive hundreds of terrorizing messages, lasting for weeks after the camp ended. (As a result, many of the sources in this story asked to be identified by first names only, and were granted anonymity in accordance with Hearst’s ethics policy.) 

Nonetheless, the hate pales in comparison to the support the inaugural camp has received, says YATC co-founder Shawn Ryan, and the group plans to maintain its drag program in the future. It has become another piece of the history of drag in the Bay Area, in the same vein as Dolores Park’s Hunky Jesus, a “drag laureate” for San Francisco, and other influential local drag pioneers. No amount of bad-faith criticism can strip the importance of that, Ryan says: “It is not just about survival. It is about us thriving.” 

Founded by Ryan and John Ainsworth in 2001, YATC offers young performers a chance to retreat into an idyllic outdoor camp environment, living and learning alongside each other while being introduced to a variety of artistic disciplines. It has earned accolades for offering a creative space free of judgment, featuring everything from classical theater training to guest clinics with Hollywood producers, leaving young people with mentorship, artistic skills and newfound confidence. 

In 2005, the camp began including drag as part of its themed group dinners, encouraging campers to raid the costume closet and let their imaginations run wild.

“We have always noted to the kids that boys can dress like girls, girls can dress like boys. Anyone can dress however they want. You can be a unicorn!” Ryan said with a laugh. “But it’s really about freedom of expression, including choosing not to dress up. Some kids choose that, and it’s awesome, too.”

Over the years, drag night grew into a bigger fascination at camp, with more young people familiar with the art form (according to Ryan, a common influence seems to be “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” now in its 15th season). Drag dinner evolved into dinner and a drag show; buoyed by the response, YATC began inviting drag queens to teach campers about developing personas, honing a routine, and the meaning of “slay.”

(Magali Gauthier/Special to SFGATE)

Teaching drag

One of those drag artists, Casi, led a master class during last summer’s camp and walked away impressed by the verve of her students. She pitched Ryan the idea of a standalone curriculum for YATC’s spring session, and the duo began brainstorming how to implement the plan. 

“Drag is just a form of acting — it’s a creative, powerful, personal form of self-expression. It allows you to search inside yourself and explore aspects that you may be afraid to dig into. I often say that we’re hiding pieces of ourselves or pretending to be different things to different people,” Casi said. “But drag allows you to pinpoint something you love feeling and doing, and then exaggerate it. It’s a safe space to be overly confident, to be sassy and free.” 

Though she has a background in theater and musical training, Casi was inadvertently introduced to drag through the Pulitzer-nominated artist Taylor Mac, with whom she collaborated on multiple productions. Over the past decade, Casi has honed her craft by immersing herself into the drag community, and her experiences form the basis of the weekend curriculum, which has as much to do with the historical foundations and theory of drag as it does actual performance. 

“The No. 1 thing the campers asked about was, ‘When are we doing makeup?’ I said, ‘Makeup? You don’t know who you are yet in drag,’” Casi said.

Instead, she led the campers through a history of drag, from its Shakespearean origins (a shortening of the stage directions “dressed as a girl”) to the Stonewall riots of 1969. They discussed drag as a potent form of empowerment for queer men amid rampant oppression, and how it evolved into an art form that now includes cis straight men and women, transgender people and nonbinary people. They learned about the radical activism of Marsha P. Johnson, who fought for civil rights and used drag as a weapon against discrimination. They watched the film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Everybody’s Talking About Jamie,” which chronicles the life of a 16-year-old who is bullied for his love of drag but ultimately prevails through courage and acceptance. 

Then, finally, Casi led the campers into the process of developing a drag persona, teaching them how to move their hands, bodies and faces. Each camper was told to bring songs that inspire joy in them, and Casi helped choreograph routines to these songs, preparing the campers for a grand finale drag show in front of their loved ones on Sunday.

A lesson in self-expression

All along, Casi stressed that drag is a flexible tool of free expression. “I told them, if you don’t feel comfortable thinking about your drag persona as a different gender, think about it as a character. You can be like Juliet from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and make it extreme,” she said. “You’re exploring every element to its fullest, exaggerated extent. It’s similar to when young artists study clowning. We’re learning how to embody a newfound confidence.” 

That embodiment is especially crucial for young people who are often harassed because of the ways they choose to express themselves, and the tension has only grown worse with a swell of vicious national discourse regarding gender identity, queerness and youth development. Despite the well-documented harms of suppressing gender and sexual expression, a variety of agitators continue to call for the persecution of “deviants,” using a tidal wave of misinformation and propaganda to bring their message into mainstream media and threaten lives and livelihoods. The rhetoric is affecting real-world policy and politics, but the influence is also felt at school, where bullying language and slurs heard at home are used to isolate young people who stick out. 

It’s this pressure that pushed 13-year-old Maddie and her mother Kim to seek out the YATC weekend camp, hoping it would spark a recovery from a school year stained by trauma and hatred. By all accounts, seventh grade in Montana has been a nightmarish time for Maddie, who has faced cyberbullying from peers and slurs uttered in hallways for being in the LGBT community. She has long had a fascination with theater, including a newer interest in drag — but the crushing toll of harassment made Maddie recede into a shell, Kim said. 

Kim’s voice rises into an emotional crackle when she describes how the school’s faculty has failed to support her daughter. She realized the extent of the problem when Maddie won the school’s science fair, but remained visibly terrified of presenting at the state competition, even telling her father that she would “rather die.” 

“So I said, screw it. We are not doing the science fair,” Kim said. “I thought we needed to have her miss school and do something different because she’s had a very difficult year. So the drag camp felt like the most extreme way to put her in a place where she feels accepted.” 

Finding confidence

It didn’t take long for Maddie to feel a kinship with Casi, Ryan and her drag camp peers. Over the course of Saturday, she discovered the core elements of her drag character and settled on a vivid nom de plume: Cherry Bomb. She picked out a costume comprising a skirt, a retro Kiss shirt, a stunning red wig and sunglasses. The hardest part was picking out a song to perform to, Maddie said — “Some of my favorite songs have really adult lyrics,” she noted with a giggle. But she went with a simple declaration of intent: “Confident,” by Demi Lovato (who identifies as queer and pansexual).  

“Some places, I just can’t really be myself because of others around me. But I had a realization that I can make a character in drag and have it be the more confident version of me,” Maddie said. “It meant I could walk down that stage with real confidence and actually be happy, without any desire to hide. It was a great, great feeling to be my own person.” 

The seven campers convened on Sunday, April 1, to hold a drag finale in front of their family and the 40 or so campers who participated in other weekend YATC programs. It wasn’t a smooth day for everyone: Kiara, for one, struggled with feelings of being overwhelmed and underprepared, and broke down in tears. Kiara had prepared a vibrant drag persona by the name of Dior Dionne — a haughty, old-money fashionista with little patience for the plebeians around her. On Sunday, however, Kiara began feeling an undercurrent of doubt. It started to spiral when she slipped while applying her makeup, leaving a blemish. Then, as if by fate, she ripped her bag of belongings while packing. The perfect day in her mind was starting to unfurl. 

But Kiara notes that her “drag mama” Casi swooped in, ready to fix her makeup and proffer words of love and encouragement. It steeled her nerves, allowing her to focus on all the joy she had put into creating Dior Dionne. And by the time the initial chords of ABBA’s iconic “Money, Money, Money” began blaring over the speakers, Kiara was ready to dance, pout and preen in front of a crowd, throwing fake cash and lip-syncing as the cheers rang out around her. 

“One of the things I’ve always loved about drag is the clothing — I would dress like that more often if I felt like I could. It just feels natural. But actually, playing the character felt really, really good,” Kiara said. “To put on a performance and feel amazing afterward, like just with the applause and smiles, it … it just felt amazing.”

The ‘blood-boiling’ moment

The campers didn’t know it at the time, but their performance was, in a sense, an act of resistance — especially given that YATC began seeing cruel comments aimed at the drag camp online. An inflammatory post on Facebook about the weekend went viral on Saturday, leading to agitation from around the country, Ryan said. He spent the evenings during the camp working furiously to take down posts that advocated hate, including a clip from one livestreamer who threatened to drive to the Santa Cruz camp and disrupt it. Ultimately, YATC had to explain to parents what was unfolding, how to report any harassment, and why the organization could keep its young campers safe. 

It was a “blood-boiling” moment for Andrew, who was forced to confront the risk that his child Kiara may be in danger simply for daring to exist among like-minded people. Likewise, Kim notes that she was “in disbelief” over the rhetoric on social media, which claimed that YATC parents were sexual predators working to pervert impressionable minds. This, despite the fact that drag is not inherently sexual in form and intent (and especially ironic given that drag has been a staple of, among other spaces, the American military through much of the 20th century). 

It was also an emotional precipice for Ryan, who felt torn between his own anger and desire to fight, and the need to stay calm and prioritize the young campers. In the weeks following the weekend camp, he has continued to receive an “unprecedented” amount of hate mail and disruptive phone calls, with some people unleashing torrents of slurs and nonsensical accusations. 

“It’s an interesting position to be in — to be able to push the ‘fight’ just by continuing to live our lives and teaching people about the art form and sharing,” Ryan says. “I thought for so long, what should I do? Should I get aggressive? Should I, gosh, get back to every single hateful person and try to change their mind?” 

Instead, Ryan and Casi have confronted the fact that the best thing to do is just keep going, with an additional eye toward security and safety at the camp. “As someone who has long been shy when it comes to political conversation, and avoided conflict out of fear, I feel like continuing to educate is the only way I can effect change,” Casi adds.

The show must go on

Despite the horror of imagining their children under further attack, what remains at top of mind for Andrew and Kim is the vision of their kids on stage on Sunday, unfettered by doubt and embracing their own agency. Being immersed in the applause of peers and parents was a formative experience for all involved, they said. 

“When Kiara was performing in drag, it was maybe the happiest and most engaged and most gratified Kiara I’ve ever seen,” Andrew said.

Tears kept flowing when the campers picked a loved one in the crowd to dance with them, parading them around the room to the triumphant rhythm of RuPaul’s “Cover Girl.” 

“I cried and cried when she was up there,” Kim said. “She got her voice back. I got my daughter back.” 

The impact of the weekend has had rippling effects in the month since. Not all of it is idyllic — Maddie and Kim are still contending with their “insanely homophobic” Montana community, and Andrew worries about what challenges Kiara will face while continuing to grow and explore her identity, even if they do live in California. Ryan remains vigilant about countering hate speech and threats toward YATC, and Casi anticipates her own family could see harassment because of her work as a drag instructor. 

Beyond the negativity, however, is an effusive sensation that drag camp is a haven in a world rife with ignorance. RuPaul once declared that “drag doesn’t change who you are, it actually reveals who you are.” In that vein, Kiara found faith in her own abilities as well as new friends, and Maddie changed the course of her seventh-grade year by rediscovering her sense of pride. 

“I just can’t wait to go back,” Maddie said.