Annual Drag U Downtown Show Suddenly Postponed by ASU
- Mackenzie Miller
- Apr 9
- 3 min read
Drag U Downtown Annual Pride Week Celebration included a screening of ‘Paris is Burning’, a brunch event, and a DragUMania show in the Arizona Center. These events were all postponed one day in advance on Tuesday, by ASU’s Educational Outreach and Student Services.
“What I'm feeling first and foremost is just such a heavy heart for the committee that has poured so many hours and so much effort into this,” said Brad DeBiase, a performer from last year's show who was also slated to perform Wednesday night at DragUMania. “It's really disappointing that [students] won't have access to this opportunity.”
In a statement, an ASU spokesperson attributed the decision to postpone to, “a combination of factors including incomplete information and an insufficient security protocol that couldn’t be remedied in time.”
Upon reviewing the request paperwork for the events, Drag U Downtown’s faculty advisor Antonio Duran, found that the ‘sponsoring organization’ had been listed incorrectly for the movie screening and brunch events. He also found that the request for the movie screening had been submitted a day late, but there were no errors in the paperwork for the main show, DragUMania.
Duran said in a statement that he “expressed frustration,” in response to being told DragUMania was cancelled for security reasons as EOSS staff member and Dean of Students for the Downtown campus, Dr. Robert Dotson, was present during the March 27th security walk-through of the venue.
“This has been really devastating for all of our event planners and all of our students downtown, part of the LGBTQ community,” said Drag U Downtown club member, Jackson Hamblin. “To all of a sudden find out on Monday of Pride Week that three of our key signature events have been canceled with little support from some of the higher up faculty in the EOSS office.”
Hamblin said EOSS didn’t make efforts to resolve any of the errors in paperwork, but that Drag U was only given the option to postpone the event, with EOSS staff telling Duran that the event would work well next semester.
“If they had given us enough notice, we could have fixed the areas that they said we were lacking in,” Hamblin said. Duran also said in his statement that several other events, with small paperwork errors similar to these, have been allowed to move forward in the past.
Pat Apap, ASU graduate and former planner of Drag U Downtown’s Pride Week, said that the club invests tens of thousands of dollars into these events annually, and this postponement is effectively a cancellation due to the inability to reschedule this year.
“When one of [these events] is cancelled it harms the security for all of the events and opportunities for queer students to feel welcome on campus,” Apap said. “If ASU tries to pride itself on who it includes, it really should pride itself on who it supports.”
DeBiase, who uses the name Kim Etiquette in drag performance, said that he “very much hope[s]” to be invited back next year for a future Drag U Downtown show and that the matter can be resolved.
“For student populations, opportunities to participate in things like [DragUMania] are really fewer and far between.” DeBiase said. “All of us drag performers, we were in that age group once upon a time, so we can really empathize with how impactful, and how significant, being able to bear witness to a show like that would have been.”
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