Welcome back to a special DragCon heavy edition of #THEWEEKINDRAG!
Last weekend marked the 3rd annual RuPaul’s DragCon! The event that took place last weekend at LA’s Convention Centre was the most successful year yet, raking in a staggering 40,000 attendees. With 210,000 square feet of floor space, there was shopping, exclusive merchandise, booths and panels starring your favourite drag icons and stars. Panels including live tapings of hit YouTube shows “Hey Qween” and “UNHhhh” starring Trixie Mattel and Katya, as well as a panel concerning “What is Drag In Trump’s America?“. The convention was a divas heaven, with makeup, wigs and clothing booths such as Sugarpill, Wigs By Vanity and sponsor Jeffree Star Cosmetics. There were chances to mix and mingle with your favourite drag stars, including the main lady herself, RuPaul. Overall, the most important part of the convention was to spread a positive message of love, creativity and acceptance, as well a chance to meet up with new and old friends in a place of queer inclusiveness. (Cheap plug! Be sure you check out our YouTube channel for our coverage of the event including interviews with Sasha Velour, Alexis Michelle, Laganja Estranja and many more of your favorites!)
Also announced this past weekend (as if DragCon couldn’t have been much better) it was announced that later this year DragCon will be hosting another convention in New York! RuPaul’s DragCon NYC will take place on Sept 30 – Oct 1, and of course RuPaul’s DragCon LA will be returning next year! As WERRRK.com is mainly based in NYC, you better believe we’ll be aaaaaaall over this! Stay tuned!
Trixie Mattel has proved she’s a queen of many talents this week by dropping an album. Her debut album is titled “Two Birds“, and shows another side to the plastic fantastic queen that you might not expect. The album is an easy-listening country record, including lead single “Mama Don’t Make Me Put On The Dress Again“, complete with music video. If you’ve been lucky enough to see Trixie’s solo show “Ages 3 & Up“, you’d know that Mattel has a gorgeous voice and is impeccably talented musically. Check out her music video below and make sure you pick up her album here!
As further proof that drag continues to filter into the mainstream, this past weekend Saturday Night Live had a sketch built around a bunch of auto mechanics begrudgingly admitting that they all watched RuPaul’s Drag Race! All that was miss was one of them asking if Valentina had stoned those tights herself! if you haven’t seen it, check it out below!
With DragCon really taking all the attention of the drag world this week, we want to close with a serious story that needs even more mainstream attention: the ongoing atrocities against the LGBT community in the country of Chechnya. You have no doubt heard reports of the apparent concentration camps for gays under the orders of Chechnyan leader Ramzan Kadyrov but now there are reports that Authorities in Chechnya have told parents of gay children, ‘Either you kill them, or we will’! And it seems like that is indeed happening as this weekend a report broke that a gay teen was pushed off a 9th story balcony by his uncle after being outed. One group on Facebook has managed to raise over $100,000 to try and help Chechnyan gays receive asylum in Canada. If you want to help, you can contribute here.
That’s it for another week in drag. Let us know if you feel like we missed anything or have anything for next time, tweet us weekly at @WERRRKdotcom or @emilymeowww for updates on #THEWEEKINDRAG.
