Racism in the Austin drag scene

The rise and fall of the mother of TX

all names used in this story are aliases
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The Austin drag scene is seen as a haven for young queer artists to unapologetically express their queer identities and push the physical limitations of presentation, performance, and visual art. A space crafted for radical queer expression created to serve its community and celebrate unapologetic self-love. Although these ideals can be represented, racism in the Austin drag scene is alive and well; this can be seen all around the city of Austin. The drag scene is dwindled with hidden prejudice. We' re diving into the past of one of Austin' s biggest queens and seeing how racism is allowed in these safe spaces.

The Rise of Elvirus

Firstly, Elvirus came into popularity when she along with multiple drag artists sued the state of TX for enacting SB 12, which was a bill proposing to ban drag entertainment in the name of protecting children from “sexually pervasive performances.” This bill put many facets of the queer community at harm because its messaging that drag, the act of cross-dressing, and transness are inherently sexually pervasive pushes the rhetoric that queer people are sexual deviants and should stay away from kids.

Elvirus doing a protest number
Elvirus speaking at the capital
Elvirus' picture for the Austin Chronicle

During all this, in Uvalde, Texas, a gunman took the lives of 19 schoolchildren under the age of 11 in the Robb Elementary school shooting. While this tragedy regarding gun violence was happening, Texas legislation decided to target drag performers and attempt to ban their artistic expression, careers, and livelihoods.

When Elvirus was testifying against this bill, she decided to write the names of all the children who have passed in the Uvalde shooting onto a dress to exemplify to legislation that they aren’t “protecting the children” but rather they’re policing free speech and impeding our 1st amendment right.

Elvirus wearing the dress dedicated to Uvalde

This chain of events caused this performer to go viral, reaching over 3 million likes on TikTok, being mentioned in several articles and newspapers including the Austin Chronicle, getting sent a signed guitar by Dolly Parton, and overall furthering her career and building her platform based on activism. Because of her virality and palatability, she was able to bolster herself to be labeled as the mother of Texas.

Meanwhile, allegedly behind the scenes, Elvirus has been exposed by multiple artists of color for being ignorant and negligent at gigs and shows she’s hosting as well as siding with and platforming known abusers and racists.

The Past Behaviors of Elvirus

Elvrius continuously perpetuates racism by amplifying the voices of harmful known racists and abusers by allowing them to perform in her shows and giving them a platform while booking disproportionately white performers and tokenizing her white-passing POC performers.

Click a Queen down below to see how they're problematic.

SuperNova

Firstly, let’s discuss the drag queen SuperNova. SuperNova is a white performer who at Elvirus’ monthly open sign-up night, Big Tits Bigger Dreams (BTBD), performed in box braids, a traditionally black protective style of hair. During her performance, she would perform as a black artist while making a caricature of black women on stage.

This act of cultural appropriation on stage discomposed audience members alike, asking questions like “Who allowed this?” and “Why would any producer allow this on their stage?”

At the next BTBD instead of dealing with the situation, Elvirus rewarded this behavior by giving SuperNova a new wig and saying after SuperNova’s next performance on the mic that “She knows that we (the audience) didn’t like her last wig so she gave her a new one.”

SuperNova was also making racist remarks to other queens of color in the cast, but when Elvira was confronted with this issue she paid her dust and lectured the queen who brought this up with her saying “They shouldn’t try to call out or cancel artists in the community.”

Elvirus decided to defend a cis white queen who culturally appropriates from BIPOC communities while berating performers of color rather than sticking up for her community. SuperNova was also recently discovered to have NSFW race-play practices that they openly display on their social media.

Miss Tiff

Another example of Elvirus being negligent of people’s safety and ignoring the concerns of her community is when she booked another queen, Miss Tiff.

Miss Tiff is banned from performing at the popular Austin gay bar, Oilcan Harry’s, for sexual harassment. When it was made aware to the main show producers that Miss Tiff was forcefully shoving her breasts into audience members' faces and had also sexually assaulted multiple trans artists by groping them in the past, she was removed from all further shows at this venue.

Elvirus, meanwhile, knowingly booked this queen for her show, BTBD, where Miss Tiff proceeded to grope three of the performers in the changing room that night. Audience members in that show also stated Miss Tiff was making them extremely uncomfortable on the microphone when she was hosting.

Elvirus knowingly booked a queen who has allegations of sexual harassment and assault; she compromised the safety of this event and multiple people were hurt by this action.

Baxine LaBean

She has also defended Baxine LaBean after she and Miss Tiff lost their show at the venue, The Lawn, due to protesting and inward community concerns.

Baxine LaBean has been run out of Chicago for her racist behavior and has called artists of color monkeys. Elvirus reported that it wasn’t about the queens, it was about far-right rhetoric inhibiting drag shows and claimed that they’ll start taking shows away from everyone if they take away this show.

This public support of these two queens was the straw that broke the camel’s back; the lack of visibility for POC in the community mixed with the constant disproportionate booking of white performers over visibly POC performers all became too much, Elvirus needed to be held accountable for her actions.

The Cancellation of Elvirus

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Sensational Siren
Sensational Siren

Community leader and prolific drag artist, Sensational Siren spoke out against Elvirus in an Instagram story post.

This highlighted the indifference in how Elvirus personifies racism outwardly and although all of this was said anonymously multiple drag artists caught on to who Siren was talking about. This started a chain of other artists coming forward to speak on their experience with this artist and how Elvirus has mistreated her community while reaping the benefits as a community leader and wonderful ally and activist.

To conclude, Elvirus is a queen who has built her platform off the guise of activism and being a leader in the community to fight against issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry. Meanwhile, Elvirus’s behavior behind the scenes does not align with the persona she is promoting outwardly. Elvirus has a continuous pattern of siding, platforming, and defending known abusers and racists in the community. The pattern being so redundant, that community leaders must call you out publicly on your complicit actions. Ignorance and negligence in any form mustn’t be tolerated and this leads to the downfall of the ones we popularize, the mother of TX.