Insight Magazine at UNR interviewed me about an article they were drafting about drag queen culture and life. I think the author, Jessica Voss, did an excellent job with the piece. I think she was able to transform a dynamic and complex topic as drag queenary and allow audiences to relate to it. Also she starts the article with a quote from the one Miss Noxema Jackson from the movie "Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar" Here is an excerpt from the article

By the end of the night, Ginger is usually feeling the pain that most women are all too familiar with after a night out. The torturous high heels, the smeared makeup, and the restricting clothing (not to mention the corsets) all make a woman or a drag queen feel like she did her best to end her evening in pain.  All of the work seems to be worth it, though, because drag queens are “very beautiful and extremely well-dressed,” according to Pat Ponder, a sixty-seven-year-old Renoite. Others seem to feel similarly; many people say that they find drag queens to be beautiful and confident. Daniels’s female friends often tell him it’s unfair he makes a prettier woman than they do.

Here is a link to the full article. Thank you Jessica for allowing me to be a part of the article.  

I always hated scantron tests. Aside from the inherent pressure of test-taking and fearing that one poor performance will hinder my future prospects, scantron tests had an additional layer of anxiety and pressure to them. I have a mild case of OCD - checking to see if doors are locked repeatedly, washing my hands multiple times at once, etc - and one area where my OCD explodes is test taking. The lexicon of paranoia that floods an OCDer's mind while taking a scantron test is overwhelming. Picture it, it's Abnormal Psychology, final exam, at 10:15 in the morning at Bascom Hill in beautiful Madison, WI. You have excessively studied, to the point where you cannot read the textbook because your highlighting strategies has rendered the text unreadable. You receive the test and sit poised to tackle the exam that is going to count for 40% of your life in the class. As you answer the first question you look down at your pencil and wonder if your mechanical pencil constitutes a #2 pencil. What happens if somebody made a mistake and I was using a different type of lead that the scantron wouldn't be able to read thus making every answer on my exam wrong? How essential is it to use a #2 pencil? Are there other numbered pencils, because I am only familiar with the #2. I push that concern out of my mind, trying to tell myself that I have used this exact same pencil before without any repercussions.

Halfway through the test I realize that I answered a question incorrectly and go to erase the bubble and put in my new answer. As I stare down at the exam, I wonder if I have completely erased the bubble or if there were trace amounts of lead still in the bubble thus confusing the scantron machine into thinking that I have chosen two answers, and thus ultimately loosing the point. Now, paranoid and full of anxiety, I excessively erase the bubble until it is no longer there, and then calmly move on to the next question.

At the end of the exam, I follow the wise and sagacious words of my teacher and "double check" my work. However, because I have OCD that become checking my exam question by question at least five times to make sure that everything lines up perfectly. What happens if my answers don't line up with the questions and thus I get everything wrong, fail the class, fail out of college and live in perpetual fear of scantron exams the rest of my life. I finish the exam in 45 minutes and then spend the next 45 minutes too paralyzed to turn in the exam for fear that, in some highly improbable way, I have completely and utterly screwed up the entire exam and excessively check and re-check my answers. 

Let me just say that I am thankful I am no longer in a place where I have to encounter scantron exams on a regular basis.  

It's really tragic to witness the slow and eminent downfall of an institution of higher education. Since the beginning of March, when the University announced a $26 million dollar budget cut, a new sense of paranoia has flooded the city. Professors and graduate students remain fearful of their positions being eliminated and departments are having to make cuts across the board while students are having to incur the ever increasing costs of college. Of course, those increasing costs are not gaining them access to a quality education, but instead asubstandard and sub par experience. Many of my friends are majoring in theater or dance at UNR; both of these programs face cuts and eventual elimination.

I believe that education is a right for all. Why, would we as a nation not want the most educated populace in the world? Why do we assume that destroying the education system, not only in Nevada, but in the US is somehow going to generate more positive results? Didn't Governor Sandoval boast about having this fabulous education plan? Where has that plan gotten us?

Unfortunately, what is invariably going to happen is the mass exodus of students and faculty from this state, taking with them their knowledge, talent, and money. They will leave Nevada and invest their resources in other states; one that does not rank 50th in the nation for education.

The fall of UNR, represents only the beginning of a very very very bad year. An assumption that budget cuts will stop there is laughable; more cuts need to be made. Regrettably, individuals that are below the age of 18 have very little power and political clout to enact change; therefore social programs geared toward early education, high school music programs, etc are often first on the chopping block. More often than not, representatives will listen to their largest constituent base - who may or may not have children and may or may not support educational endeavours. Perhaps they are voting to expand social security coverage or voting to lower taxes oblivious that money for programs needs to come from somewhere. It sucks even more because research - ya know very costly research - has shown that engagement of children through early education programs has shown to improve grades, behaviors, and chances for future education or careers. Though we have these facts staring at us, we still chose to do nothing.

So let me get this straight. We already had a failing education system before the collapse of the economy. Now that the economy sucks, we feel that the best way to address this problem is make additional cuts to said education system - though they have no money to begin with - and assume that everything will work out in the end? Great we'll be broke and have an uneducated citizenry.

Could somebody please give me a small country to rule? Nothing large or grandiose, but just my own country, because part of me feels that I would be able to rule a country better than some of our current leaders. I would have ridiculous holidays as excuses for days off, amazing social benefits, and my theatre, music, and dance programs would be the best in the world. This would be our flag; Anybody who does not like rainbows is not welcome in my Gay New World. Also, as a Ginger, I see it as my moral responsibility to give Ginger's free sunblock for life.  Anybody want to come?