Published in the Quad-City Times on Sep. 22, 2024

In the waning weeks of Pride Month, we spoke with six drag performers based in the Quad-Cities.

Because of all the local events in June, some of the performers — who ranged from five to 36 years of drag experience — were burned out. Others were energized. 

While discussing the state of Quad-Cities drag, though, most agreed on two major points: The number of gay bars in the Quad-Cities has decreased significantly and the TV show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” has drastically changed the art form’s audience — and their expectations. 

Here are the six drag performers that will be included in this in their own words-style explainer on the state of Q-C drag: 

• Jemarious March, who performs as Milange, has been working in drag for 16 years. March is from Bettendorf and makes and sells clothing through an online business. 
• Tara Williams, who lives in DeWitt, performs in both the Quad-Cities and Dubuque. Williams has performed for 36 years and has no plans of retiring soon.
• Chad Rose has performed for five years as Bentley Balenciaga and works as a cruise director for Big Gay Cruises, an annual travel experience that often books queens from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Rose is also on the board for the QC Pride Alliance. 
• Ginger Woodruff, from Davenport, is known on the stage as Ginger Snaps. Woodruff, who was once crowned Miss Gay Illinois, retired earlier this year for health reasons after 25 years of performing.
• Jherico Frias, who performs as Miss Jaide, has worked in drag for 18 years. Frias immigrated to Clinton from the Philippines as a teen and is now the show director for Viva La Divas, a monthly drag show at the Circa 21 Speakeasy in Rock Island.
• Kerry Wells is a 30-year drag performer known on the stage as Lyrica Simone, which stands for “Loving Yourself, Respecting your Integrity, and Conquering All.” Wells has a signature move when performing called “Thor’s Hammer” and books drag shows at Crane & Pelican Cafe in LeClaire. 

Most of those we talked to said they don’t work in drag full-time. Instead, they also have a “boy job,” as Frias described it, to make the money work. 

Some have worked full-time before but stepped away from that workload. Woodruff used to do shows three times a day, four times a week at a now-closed gay bar in Davenport called Club Fusion.

Williams used to travel the country just to get her name out there, but now stays within the region working full-time. 

“It just got tiresome — motel, motel, motel, motel,” Williams said.

“I have no desire to be out twirling in a bar until three in the morning,” Rose said. “I’m in bed at 10:00 watching ‘Golden Girls.’”

Drag in the Quad-Cities and beyond doesn’t look the same as it used to. 

So what keeps local performers getting back on stage? And what does the drag scene look like in the Quad-Cities? Here’s what these six had to say. 

Note: These interviews were conducted separately, and then condensed into this oral history format. The interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity and cohesion. 

How did you first get into drag?

March: Back when Club Fusion was still open in Davenport, we’d watch the drag shows there. They’d have two to three shows a night. (My friends) convinced me to try it one day, and I haven’t looked back since. 

Frias: My very first time ever seeing a drag show was also at Club Fusion. It was just something I was not used to seeing, in a good way. It was very entertaining. It was dazzling. 

When I worked there, they had a fundraiser where all the bartenders, shot boys and go-go boys would get in drag and perform for a good cause. I got on stage and everyone loved me, just because I was pretty, I guess? Obviously, I loved the attention.

Woodruff: I actually went to the bar when I was 17, underage, and (saw) my first drag queen and knew that’s what I want to do … I ended up asking another queen to help me and she showed me how to do everything. I just kept going to open stages and worked my way up.

Wells: Growing up, I always wanted to be a singer … When I was 20 years old, I had a fake ID and I snuck into J.R.’s Nightclub (in Rock Island), and I saw a local drag queen that was performing. That’s when I was first exposed to it. And then partying and dancing, one of her backup dancers recruited me to be a backup dancer. So we went to Atlanta, I performed for her, and I was smitten.

Rose: I started amassing and building my closet and my wardrobe far before I actually ever did it. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so I knew that when I performed, I wanted to do it a certain way. I wanted to come out a bit more polished.

What is it you love about drag? 

Woodruff: The glitz and glamor and being able to put those costumes on and have big hair. All the good stuff.

March: It really helped me find myself when I was 21, 22, and over the years has helped me channel frustration, joy or whatever it is I need to feel.

Wells: I was able to be seen in a way I had never been seen before.

Frias: It is a constant learning experience. There is just no way of being perfect in drag. You will always learn something new.

What does it feel like to be on-stage?

Frias: I am just me. I am free to say what I want, do what I want. 

Wells: I love it. It’s an exhilarating performance, because there’s so many things that happen. Your hair may not be on tight. Your zipper may bust.

Rose: It’s a rush, one thousand percent. It’s the closest I’ll ever feel to being a pop star. And when you’re young, that’s what everyone idolizes. When I was a kid, people asked me ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I always would just say, ‘A backup dancer for Janet Jackson.’

(Drag), to me, is the closest that I will ever feel. 

Woodruff: Throughout the years, I’ve met so many people and it didn’t matter if they were straight, bi, gay, whatever. If I put a smile on their face, I know I made their day. And that’s why I did it. It’s amazing. I was always a little shy kid growing up, and then you put that makeup, hair and costume on and you turn into something else, like your true you. It opened me up a lot.

March: It’s giving all those people in the audience the chance to express themselves, and they can feel safe.

How is your life different on and off stage? 

Williams: On the inside, I’m still the same person. It’s just an act, that’s all it is. An act — lipstick, a song, an action.

Frias: Jericho is more of a laid back guy. I really don’t like going out unless I have to go out. I’m just not as social as a lot of people would think a drag performer would be. I’m very private.

But when I’m Miss Jaide, I am funnier. I’m louder. I get away with more things. I don’t know what it is, I’m just more confident.

March: It’s night and day. I’m a very private, reserved person. If I’m not in drag, you might find me in the corner of the bar on my phone. I’m a complete introvert out of drag, but once I put the makeup on and everything else, then the extroverted side can come out. 

Milange doesn’t have the same problems or anything that Jemar has. She can be whoever she wants to, and at the end of the day she comes off.

What is the Quad-Cities drag community like? 

Frias: We have each other’s backs, and I think that’s what separates us.

Woodruff: There’s a lot of good times and there’s a lot of hard times. I lost every single stitch of drag I had in the flood when I was at Mary’s. The basement flooded and I lost everything. People came out of the woodwork to help me get back on my feet.

Wells: We welcome people here with open arms. Sometimes you go out of town and people may look at you as competition.

March: It’s like any other job, you’re not always going to get along with everyone you work with. But sometimes we have to just take a step back and realize we all have the same goal. At the end of the day, we’re going to be there to support each other. I would say historically, the drag scene has been a little competitive, but that can happen anywhere.

Frias: I think our drag is more elevated because we’re more seasoned than most performers that are in different cities.

How has Quad-Cities drag changed? 

Wells: When I started performing in 1994, the Quad-Cities was one of the biggest places in the Midwest aside from Chicago where all the queens came from all over.

Frias: It was booming. Everybody wanted to be a drag performer, and everybody wanted to see a drag show.

Wells: In the ’90s, you couldn’t even find a seat to sit down. People were coming from all over to watch the show.

Williams: It was always drag this, drag that. It was always busy. But nowadays, the gay bars downtown hardly have any shows. So pretty much all those local girls have gone their separate ways.

Rose: You’ve got some literal drag legends that are from the local Q-C that aren’t here anymore. Dena Cass? Alicia Markstone? Those are literal living drag legends that were local to the area and had to move out because drag has receded so much from here.

March: Now, I’d say it’s a little dormant. We have a lot of great entertainers here that don’t really get the spotlight they deserve, but we’re also lacking the venues to showcase that.

Rose: Gay bars in general are just not having the stamina and the same effect. They’re not playing the same role in society that maybe they used to. There are other avenues for people to meet people.

Woodruff: It’s been a gradual decline, and then when COVID hit, it said ‘Goodnight, Irene.’

How has drag changed in general? 

Frias: There’s old school drag and new school drag, which is what you see on TV now.

Woodruff: Old school drag, they come out in huge costumes. Fringe, beaded fringe. 

Wells: In the ’90s, everything had to be on point. When you were in pageants, you were judged on everything, from head to toe.

Williams: When I first originated over in Rock Island, the owners there were very strict with us. We couldn’t walk around with only just a face on. We had to have a whole get up on, dress on, that’s the way I was brought up. Nowadays, girls walk around with just their faces and no costume on.

March: Our safe spaces have expanded. Places we didn’t used to feel safe going into, we may go in there now. We have worked for that acceptance, even though we really shouldn’t have to.

Williams: Drag has changed ever since ‘RuPaul’ has come out with all that androgynous drag. I’m old school.

Rose: It’s made it more mainstream and not just in the gay bars where it used to be, which I think is great … But it’s also meant that now it doesn’t have to be in the gay bars where it really originated and played a pivotal role in the old school theme. 

What is the ‘RuPaul Effect?’ 

Wells: ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ and other shows like that brought a different culture, as far as drag. We’re able to be seen by people that are not just in the gay community. When I started performing, I was only performing in gay clubs. 

March: I would say that the acceptance we are seeing from outside the LGBTQ community has increased over the last 10 to 15 years. ‘Drag Race’ has played a huge part in that, with it being mainstream and people can actually see more of what we actually do, even though that’s a small sample of what we do. It helps them see that we are still human, that we have feelings and experiences similar to them.

Rose: Everyone expects everyone to perform like the ‘Ru’ girls and look like the ‘Ru’ girls. So there’s this expectation now of what ‘good’ drag is. The girls doing the death drops and jumping off of things and doing all of that, that’s when everyone hoots and hollers. It’s no longer just hooting and hollering for any entertainer.

Frias: We don’t have a lot of performers that can do the mainstream kind of drag, which a lot of people want to see. Instead of heavy-beaded gowns and up-dos, they want to see edgy looks. 

Rose: I’m a bit more of an old school pageant showgirl who goes for more of the original female illusion, Vegas style feathers, rhinestone sequins. You won’t catch me death dropping. If I dropped, I’d fall. Send help. I may be dead. Check on me.

Frias: I think (‘RuPaul’) has something to do with the decline of it. Drag has elevated so much that the Quad-Cities is kind of behind. 

Rose: People think in order to have made it, you have to get on Drag Race. Like that’s the pinnacle of drag. But for me, I have a career. I have no desire to get on ‘Drag Race.’

What misconceptions are there about drag? 

Frias: That we are hiring, I guess. That we’re trying to make people gay. I’m not quite sure what people think happens at a drag show … I don’t want to believe that people just think drag queens are just having sex on stage or doing nasty things — I don’t want to believe that people are that naïve. 

March: We’re not there to make your life harder. We’re not there to change your views or convert you to the LGBTQ community. We’re just there to provide entertainment.

Woodruff: We don’t want your children. It’s always been like that. Everybody’s worried about drag queens and their kids. It just don’t make sense.

Wells: In 2022, during Pride Month, I was approached by the Davenport Public Library to perform. The kids wanted to see drag queens … But unbeknownst to me, there was this big campaign online. It was really bad. I had never had that experience before, where there were people that just hated me that didn’t know me.

As soon as I got out of the car, it was horrible shouting and it was a mess … I had to have a police escort to escort me to the car. That was probably one of my worst experiences in drag, because I didn’t know what they were going to do with me walking out there like a lamb going to slaughter. 

It was like bees just swarming. I was not expecting that … You had people that you didn’t know if they were going to try to kill you or not.

Rose: Certain media have shaped like we’re doing this to perform for children, and that’s not it at all. I don’t want that. I want the straight white ladies with money! I’m there to make money. It costs a lot of money to look that cheap. I spend a lot of money on luxury cosmetics, all of that. Children don’t have money to tip me.

Frias: Like any other job, it takes a toll on your body. It’s mentally, physically draining. A lot of people think that you just want to do drag because you want to get drunk, have fun or want to dress up as a girl — no. That’s not the case. 

What is a drag family?

Rose: Some of the heritage of drag families really comes from being an outcast. 

Wells: Your families, they may not accept you as being gay, bisexual, transgender and what not. So you form your own family. And in this family, you’re working together for the same goal.

Frias: You want to belong somewhere. You don’t want to be always alone.

Woodruff: I have probably 20 (drag) children that I’ve helped get their career started. If they need costumes, I’m right there. Whatever they need to build, to be better, I’m there to help them. It’s very rewarding.

Wells: It’s very advantageous to have a performing family. For me, I’m a pageant queen, and gowns are very expensive, anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000. So you may have a family — okay, well can I borrow this gown? 

Rose: Ginger is my drag mom in the community. And she was the one who was there and was like, ‘Let me help you baby, let me show you this, let me teach you this.’ So I have a lot of admiration and respect for her because she was there to answer questions.

My drag siblings — Barbara Busch Light, Sinclaire Snaps — those are my sisters and we are very close.

Woodruff: At my retirement party, we did a retirement show, and almost every single one of them was there … I walked out and they were chanting ‘mama.’

That brought tears to my eyes. It just showed me how much I was loved.

Frias: I think it’s really important to have a chosen family, because you need that support. It’s just supporting each other and loving each other, the way that you are. How a family should.