How To Train Your Drag Queen

Audience pours in to witness first drag show at Texas Tech
By Sarah Scroggins/Daily Toreador Staff Writer

Jonathan Martinez thought Lubbock was open-minded when he moved here eight months ago. Now, his perception has changed.

Martinez, a professional drag queen, said Lubbock is less accepting than he originally thought, but the Residence Halls Association and the Gay-Straight Alliance organizations at Texas Tech are working to change that.

“I think it’s really cool that Tech is starting to do something different,” Martinez said. Martinez, also known as Geneva Lush, has been performing drag for almost three years.

RHA, GSA and Project CHAMPS hosted the first drag show at Tech on Wednesday night at the Frazier Alumni Pavilion to educate and entertain the community about homosexuality. Jesse Saldivar, a sophomore accounting major from Corpus Christi and the president of RHA, said the organization planned to set out about 150 chairs, but quickly added more as people came pouring in.

Saldivar was the leader of this operation. The organization’s members decided to try to include other organizations in dealing with diversity at Tech. He pitched the idea of a drag show to the GSA and it took off from there.

“I began contacting a number of different drag queens,” Saldivar said. “We decided to add an amateur portion that would allow students to dress up as the opposite gender and perform a song.”

I'd like to know why this Martinez guy thought Lubbock was an open minded town before he moved there. He might have wanted to schedule a trip to Lubbock to visit before he made the pilgrimage to what was named the second most conservative city in the U.S. by the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research (BACVR). (FYI - Abilene is third and Provo, Utah is first). That said, I think a few drag shows are exactly what Lubbock needs. I've always thought the idea of a dude dressed up as a woman was inherenly funny (but oddly I didn't enjoy 'Bosum Buddies'). In fact, I think a much better a idea for drag racing would be two cross dressers racing in high heels. That's got way more entertainment value than fast cars.