Drag queens welcome all students for O Week

The pair of drag queens with pink wigs and sequined dresses leaning off the balcony make most people double take.

Bralais gay bar on Hamilton’s Victoria Street has been hard to walk past for students this Orientation Week.

So far Bralais has hosted an Alice in Wonderland themed party and Thursday’s drag queen bingo night hosted by the fabulous Kita Mean and Anita Wigl’it.

Students who went into the bar for the four for $20 cruiser drink deal ended up staying for the atmosphere and amusing hostesses.

Doug McConnochie, a third year linguistic student at Waikato university was out for his first night of O Week.

 McConnochie and his friends were walking down Victoria Street when Kita and Anita shouted from the balcony, inviting them to join bingo and be in to win a free bar tab.

“They’re really engaging,” he said.

Kita, a well-known drag diva from Auckland, says being able to make people laugh is important for the LBGT community.

“Drag is about breaking down the seriousness …it allows people to relax and reassess views that they might have had,” said Kita.

She has noticed an improvement in people’s views of both drag and the LBGT community in general over the last few years.

 “New Zealand is a progressive country,” Kita said.

The lively duo use humour to make people feel more comfortable with both being themselves and accepting others, an important lesson for students in general.

“There’s that question, who will accept me?” said Kita.

She hopes that students seeing her embrace being silly will help them learn to be comfortable in themselves and also ease the seriousness of daily life.

“It’s giving people a holiday from everyday life…and that’s fabulous.”

Lawrence Needham, co-owner of Bralais who also manages Memento Café at the university, wants the colourful events to help all students – gay and straight – feel welcome this week.

“We thought we’ll do an event every night just to keep everyone interested,” said Needham.

“We’ve had heaps of support…everybody loves it.”

Yet to come this O Week is an Angel and Demons single night on Friday and a Roaring 20’s party on Saturday hosted by Needham himself dressed in drag.