Drag and science unite as LGBTQ researchers bring their work to the stage – for inclusion
Peculiarities and quarks22:44Dragging VOTE Ahead – LGBTQ scholars conduct their work for inclusion
In front of a sold-out crowd in downtown Toronto, an artist going by the stage name Elle Nyx the Space Witch takes the stage to give a presentation on the process of ram pressure stripping.
Aries pressure-stripping, in which the gas is stripped away from a galaxy as it enters a cluster of other galaxies, is a process astronomers believe influences star formation.
But in this case, it’s also the inspiration for a performance at an event designed to challenge stereotypes about who belongs in science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM).
For University of Toronto astronomer Leo Alcorn, also known as Elle Nyx, this meant dropping the traditional trappings of the professional scientist to perform in fishnet stockings, a star-studded dress and a red lace robe, which the represent dark matter, stars and gas that make up galaxies.
“I thought, why don’t we show people what this looks like,” she said. “So the costume I’m wearing plays a big part in my act.”
At this event, held in a packed bar in downtown Toronto, Alcorn is one of four scientists who took the stage to present their work – and then performed in drag.
The event, called Science is a Drag, is the brainchild of a group of scientists who saw the need to create more inclusive spaces in STEM with drag.
“Scientists can look however they want, however they identify and feel comfortable,” says co-founder Shawn Hercules. “Science is a Drag humanizes scientists and shows that we come in many shapes, shapes and sizes.”
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Science is a Drag started in 2019. Hercules did his PhD research at McMaster University in Hamilton, where he investigated why triple-negative breast cancer affects women of African descent in a particularly aggressive way. They ran into fellow PhD student Samantha Yammine at a viewing party in Toronto for the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race.
At that time, Yammine, a science communicator known as Science Sam on social media, and Hercules had already met through Instagram. Yammine said she had been thinking about the idea of producing a science-based drag show, and asked Hercules if they would like to participate.
“I was like, yeah, that sounds great, and it just started from there,” Hercules said.
Hercules had grown up in a religious environment in Barbados and had never been to a drag show before arriving in Canada for their PhD. They admit that it was necessary to overcome their own discomfort and prejudice in order to feel comfortable with towing.
But it also took real courage based on the barriers many LGBTQ scholars face within STEM itself.
A 2019 report from the UK’s Royal Society for Chemistry and Astronomy and the Institute of Physicsfound, for example, that 28 percent of LGBTQ respondents reported having ever considered leaving their workplace because of the climate or discrimination against LGBTI people.
Nearly half of those who said they were trans had considered leaving their workplace because of the climate, and nearly 20 percent often considered it. Comparable research is not available to Canadian scientists.
Hercules points out that scientists say this defines the kinds of questions researchers ask — structuring genomic work around a binary understanding of sex, for example — and may perpetuate the sense that members of the LGBTQ community don’t belong in science spaces.
“Let’s Run This Experiment”
When Hercules, Yammine and another doctoral student, Geith Maal-Bared, approached Carrie Boyce, executive director of the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, a scientific engagement charity in Toronto, she saw the potential to immediately denounce those ideas.
“I remember being so excited myself. I think I had only been to one drag show. I had been in Canada for about a year and I was still, in many ways, learning and embracing my own queer identity Boyce said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve never heard of this. Let’s run this experiment. I’ll get scientists, let’s see what happens.'”
University of Toronto astronomer Leo Alcorn is one of the scientists who presented their work and performed at Science is a Drag in Toronto. The event challenges stereotypes about who belongs in science, engineering, technology and math (STEM) and seeks to create more inclusive spaces for LGBTQ scientists.
Initially, Boyce said she feared they would struggle to find enough scientists to not only give a scientific presentation but perform in cross-dressing for the first time.
“It’s quite an intense question to ask there,” she said.
As it turns out, they had no trouble finding researchers to perform and perform, including Hercules.
“My drag name is Rawbyn Diamonds… [it’s] kind of raunchy, but it also sounds kind of classy, so that’s kind of the drag persona I’ve created, which is honestly kind of just me,” they said.
Hercules lectured on their thesis research and synced with Rihanna’s Umbrella.
“Of course I had an umbrella.”
Milestone event
In the four years since its first performance, Science is a Drag has grown, drawing interest from groups in other cities who wanted to organize their own events and winning an international award for science engagement.
For participant Alcorn, who made her first appearance at the Toronto 2023 event, the event was an opportunity to bring her knowledge of extragalactic astrophysics to a wider audience – and to encourage more people to realize that the universe is bigger and bigger. more complex than they could imagine.
“In astronomy, we’re not so much what we call an experimental science. We’re an observational science,” she said. “That’s why I can only see things and put them into boxes, little categories. But I’ve learned through my time and research that the universe, these categories are just short, they’re not real truth.”
“There’s what I’d imagine [are] almost infinite expressive possibilities of galaxies, and why can’t people be the same way?”
In June 2023, Science is a Drag held their biggest event ever, selling out tickets in minutes. But it has not escaped the attention of artists and organizers that Science is a Drag is reaching a milestone, even as attacks against LGBTQ individuals intensify.
“The show itself really becomes a kind of love letter from us to the 2SLGBTQ+ community, both in the arts and beyond. It’s really a very timely reminder that you are enough, just the way you are. And that’s a message that I think it just has to be repeated over and over,” said Boyce.
At a time of increasingly violent rhetoric towards the LGBTQ community, Boyce says the hope is that Science is a Drag can serve as a sanctuary and a space to bring people together, as well as a springboard for a community of scientists working in be able to go back to their labs and departments and facilitate change.
“We’re creating exactly this space that’s just full of kindness, love, and joy — around science of all things. I never thought it possible, but it seems to be working,” she said.
