BUZZ
Event features alternative seating, earplugs, headphones, masks, sunglasses, fidget accessories
Pitzer College’s Chronically Ill and Disabled Student Alliance hosted a “sensory-friendly drag show” Thursday with modified lighting and other accommodations.
The student alliance collaborated with Strive 2 Thrive, a mental health and wellness initiative, to host the annual show with local Los Angeles performers, a description of the event on the school’s website states.
“We put in specific efforts to make the space sensory friendly including less stimulating lights, lower audio volume, asking attendees to limit strong fragrances, and providing alternative seating, earplugs, headphones, high-quality masks, sunglasses and fidget accessories,” the description states.
The event featured performances by drag queens named Lexapro, Adrian D’Vil, Nova Necrophiliac, and Banshee Belfry, according to an Instagram post from the Chronically Ill and Disabled Student Alliance.
Strive 2 Thrive Co-lead Grayson Kunz said in a video posted to Instagram that the event will be live-streamed and recorded.
Manhattan Institute Investigative Analyst Stu Smith condemned the event in a post on X.
“College wellness programs have stretched the definition of wellness so broadly that somehow hosting a drag show falls under their mission, despite all manner of other programming they could be doing to actually improve student health and well-being,” he wrote.
“Secondly, I’ve become so skeptical of terms like ‘chronically ill’ and ‘sensory-friendly’ that my immediate reaction is to suspect it’s all performative nonsense. That’s frustrating because I’ve personally seen how beneficial sensory-friendly educational resources can be for people who genuinely need them,” Smith wrote.
But Pitzer is far from the only school to embrace drag performance.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted a drag show in September as part of the festivities to welcome students back to campus.
“One drag queen repeatedly called an audience member a ‘twink’ and joked that the game was ‘good Christian bingo with good Christian values,’” the Madison Federalist student news outlet reported.
Further, Florida State University’s Pride Student Union requested more than $58,000 this year to fund endeavors such as drag shows and a “gender-affirming clothing closet,” according to public records obtained exclusively by The College Fix.
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