‘Christian Drag Clowns’ Compare Jesus’ Death and Persecution to Coming Out
Begging for judgement
‘Spiritual DragCon 2022 has come and gone, and man was it ever strange. In what is likely a world’s first, a group of progressive Christians (In reality, a collective of pagans and self-deceived God-haters) threw a “first-of-its-kind gathering at the intersection of drag and spirituality” where attendees could “join drag performers and faith leaders from around the globe in Chicago this October for a stunning and sacred three-day festival.”
One of the panel featured ‘drag clowns’ where the speakers had these incredible bios.
Christopher Belmont (it/he/she) is a clown-inspired kingthing from chicago, IL. it believes and lives a life of freedom from gender expectations and norms, to live however you choose to live as your truest and wholest self. this ethos in drag has brought him joy, safety, and a newfound love for himself and the world around her.
King Julez (they/them) is a Masters of Divinity student, board chair for Affirm United/S’affirmer Ensemble, and future ordinand within The United Church of Canada. Their long-term goal is to be a drag clown minister, and help to bridge the gap between faith communities and the 2S-LGBTQIA+ community through education and the healing of trauma.
Fyrestorm is a ‘a new Drag King on the scene from Columbus, Ohio. …My tason performing range from in-depth character cosplays, to rock undead demon; to boy and realness’
King Julez, one of the panelists who we have featured before, explains why the Easter story is analogous to queer folk suffering and then being resurrected to new identities.
In my church world, I’m a part of the United Church of Canada, and doing my drag there has brought me a lot of hope because, you know, I did a drag show this year for Easter, and we called it ‘Jesus Coming Out’, you know it’s about this whole story of Easter in a Christian context is, you know, Jesus kind of comes into and says, Yes, it’s me, I’m the Messiah. Faces persecution with his friends, Judas (unintelligible) One of- Judas turns him in, he gets killed, and the story is living into this purpose of, of resurrection.
And we draw parallels you know, queer folks, we come out, we embrace who we are, often we face persecution, but once we face that, we realize we’re living our truth, and we live what we’re meant to be. And I’ve seen two or three other churches now holding drag shows as well, two or three United Churches. And are asking me for advice or connections to performers or things like that and it’s really beautiful and it gives me a lot of hope for my church.
