The season eight winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race and seasoned queen, Bob the Drag Queen, hosted a Virtual Drag Queen Bingo with UW-Milwaukee and UW-Madison students on Thursday night.
The idea to host a virtual drag bingo originated at UW-Madison, specifically at the Open House Gender & Sexuality Learning Community within University Housing during Fall 2020 when the pandemic was reaching an all-time high. Those individuals noticed specific hardships marginalized communities, including LGBTQ+, were facing due to COVID-19.
“It quickly became obvious that folks were excited to attend and grateful to share community with their peers, colleagues and fellow community members,” said Whitney Anderson, Open House Gender & Sexuality Learning Community Program Coordinator. “Considering the many collective traumas marginalized communities have been forced to endure this past year, events like drag bingo are important as they help reconnect folks to one another and remind us all that we’re not alone.”
According to Anderson, students expressed this need and desire for connection and community now more than ever.
“We noticed other universities hosting similar events and wanted to explore how we could make it happen at UW-Madison,” Anderson said. “Once we had confirmed campus interest in a virtual drag bingo program, we quickly identified Bob the Drag Queen as our host and things from there progressed quickly.”
Word of the event traveled fast to the UW-Milwaukee LGBTQ+ Resource Center, and it received many co-sponsors including the Open House Gender & Sexuality Learning Community, Gender & Sexuality Campus Center, Multicultural Student Center, Office of Inclusion Education, Transfer Transition Program (within the Center for First Year Experience), Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment (PAVE, student org), Sex Out Loud (student org), Multicultural Learning Community, Studio Learning Community, Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Learning Community, Chadbourne Residential College, Center for Cultural Enrichment (University Housing) and UWM’s LGBTQ+ Resource Center.
At the event, everyone was excited to chat with one another and have a chance to connect over shared interests, something many hadn’t done since going online last year. Everyone received their own personal virtual bingo card. Bob called out the numbers, and the first to get a BINGO based on the criteria won a prize. Prizes included a Bob the Drag Queen mask, poster, books such as The Art of Drag and the opportunity to video chat with Bob on the call.
Bob answered questions, talked in the video call chat and played an influx of The Price is Right music when someone won. He also spilled the tea on his friendships with Thorgy Thor, Trixie Mattel, Monet X Change and Kim Chi, for all of you Drag Race fans.
The event had a great turnout from both the UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee campuses. The participants were diverse, ranging widely from first-year undergraduate students to law students, faculty and staff.
“People loved Bob the Drag Queen, and coming together on a Thursday night with finals quickly approaching was something these UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee students needed,” said Anderson.
Excellent article, Emily!