Performance will be mid-June at Villa Chanticleer
It all started with a posting on the local Facebook page What’s Happening Healdsburg. Noe Naranjo, a student at Healdsburg High School announced and began soliciting donations and performers for a drag show to be put on by the school’s Queer Straight Alliance club. The show was planned to be part of Pride Week, the school’s contribution to Pride Month in June.
“The drag show was originally started as an idea for Pride Week,” Naranjo said. “Pride Week at school is for students who can’t make it to the Pride Parade in San Francisco and bring a bit of queer pride to HHS. We feel supported, but often we feel like it’s really underrepresented at school. (Pride Week has) activities each day, and the drag show was supposed to be a part of it.”
The problem was, according to Healdsburg Unified School District Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel, the club hadn’t yet actually run the idea past school administration and they had inadvertently scheduled the performance for June 1, in the middle of what is known as “dead week,” the week before finals when no afterschool activities take place.
“We don’t typically plan or allow after school activities during that week because we want students to focus on studying and finals,” Vanden Heuvel said, adding that the school administration had, several weeks before, turned down another club that wanted to host a dance during “dead week.”
“We felt like we needed to be consistent in implementing this practice, and because of that, this event could not take place on June 1,” Vanden Heuvel said, adding that they offered the students the option of a lunchtime event on campus on June 1 or an event after school was out.
Because the club had faced pushback for other events at Pride Week, and because they didn’t immediately understand the reason for the denial, the students were initially upset.
“As soon as the show got cancelled I sent an email to the principal stating my concerns with it being cancelled, along with the other things that got cancelled in Pride Week,” Naranjo said. “I was pretty infuriated, when everything got cancelled got called in the next day to have the meeting with administration.”
After some consideration, the students chose to host an event at Villa Chanticleer in Healdsburg on June 15, with assistance from Christian Sullberg and Ozzy Jimenez, the owners of Moustache Baked Goods, and Mark Themig the Community Services Director for the city of Healdsburg. According to Naranjo, Sullberg and Jimenez had originally been involved as sponsors donating gift certificates to the drag show, but immediately jumped in to help when the first show was cancelled.
“After we lost the location at HHS the superintendent started contacting the city council and trying to find us a new venue, because he was supportive and wanted to see it happen,” Naranjo said. “Three or four days passed and then he said you can use the Villa, thanks to Mark Themig; he had a say in getting the Villa. We chose it over the Raven because they had a date conflict too.”
Despite the momentary turmoil, Vanden Heuvel is proud of the persistence and initiative shown by the students. “One of our main district goals is to make our students become contributing citizens in the wider world and our kids did a great job of advocating for the themselves and communicating in an effective way. I’m really proud of them.“
Naranjo say the drag show will feature a contest of sorts, with a beauty pageant/catwalk segment and a talent portion, which may include lip syncing routines or performers putting their own talents on display. The famous drag queen Leila La Rue was scheduled to fly in for the June 1 show, and Naranjo is hoping she’ll be able to change her tickets and come for the new date. Drag queens from San Francisco and San Jose will also join the festivities. The top three finishers will receive prizes.
“It’ll be a thrill,” Naranjo said. “I think it’s going to be new to Healdsburg; something extravagant.”
Naranjo says that while the LGBTQ community at HHS feels “generally supported” they also feel “sort of like an outcast at school. The support is there but it’s not very open. Its just not really talked about.”
He hopes that this event will help start a greater dialogue.
The Healdsburg High School Queer Straight Alliance Drag Show will take place Thursday, June 15 at 7 p.m. The show will be free and family friendly at Villa Chanticleer. The doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
