Beautiful make-up creations, extravagant glitter dresses and wigs in all the colors of the rainbow. For the third time, famous people from Drenthe were transformed into drag queens in Westerbork this weekend. The Drag Queen Show provided a pleasant evening, but online was a different experience.
There were negative reactions, especially on Facebook, after photos of the participants were shared. “Disgusting,” writes a man in an FC Emmen shirt. “Crazy world,” says a woman from Schoonoord. And a PVV supporter posted: “Forced left-wing idiocy.”
“It scares me,” says Albertje Sok, organizer of the Dragqueen Show. “I received a screenshot and I thought: how is that possible after such a positive evening?”
During the Drag Queen Show, men dressed in extravagant outfits go on stage to dance to a song lipsyncing (playbacking, ed.). The event is inspired by the popular program RuPaul’s Drag Race, an American talent show for drag queens.
It was the third time that Sok organized this on Saturday. And she has never read so many negative reactions as now. “Words are used that you do not hear in everyday life. It is really unimaginable.”
One of the participants this year was Fred Heerink, director of the Drenthe Safety Region. With his green long hair, blue eye shadow and glittery dress, he was almost unrecognizable on stage. “They were all nervous men who found it very scary to do that. But were willing to take that step.”