REGINA – The drag queen culture in Regina is in the spotlight this week at Queen City Pride.
A workshop Thursday evening at Q Nightclub is meant to better educate the community about drag, while giving confidence to people who might be interested in dressing up as a queen or king.
“It’s always been here. We’re just making it more known,” said Matthew Bellisle, who also goes by the stage name Lexi Tres-Belle.
Bellisle and Nathan Holten are this year’s Miss and Mr. Gay Regina, vowing to use their elected positions to stomp out stereotypes.
“If you are yourself and you are the truest you that you can be, who cares what everyone else thinks?” said Bellisle.
Bellisle and Holten consider themselves part of the younger drag generation, a group of Regina performers who are educating the public on the art form.
“Now that society in general is a lot more respectful and accepting of our community, we can branch out now and we can make it a lot more known,” said Bellisle.
Bellisle’s transformation to Lexi takes skill and time.
“I’ve done it in half an hour, but normally I like to dilly-dally and I like to be a perfectionist. So normally it takes up to two hours,” said Bellisle.
When asked what Lexi is like, Holten began laughing: “She’s difficult sometimes, very much energetic, all over the place and fierce. If she wants something done, it’s getting done.”
Bellisle has been performing in drag for the past five years, shortly after he came out to his family: “I was teased from grade 4 to grade 8 for being gay before I even came out to myself.”
Years later, he’s using his confidence on the stage to educate anyone curious about drag or struggling to understand why.
“We’re still the same people that we are (in drag), but this is kind of a different branch of who we are,” said Bellisle. “I’m very happy being a man. I’ve very happy being a boy. It’s more the acting. It’s that fun part behind it.”
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