by F. Colleen Crinklaw

“I dream of a day when I can show my future children how far we’ve come in the simple arena of basic human rights. I strive to make this day a reality before I’m old and bitter about the way my government has ignored my cries for equality.”— Bent Alaska is glad to have Colleen Crinklaw as a voice in our community.

I am a 28 year-old drag queen. When it’s show time, I glue on my lashes, tease my hair, cinch myself into a corset, and slip into impossibly high heels so that I can perform for the citizens of Anchorage wanting to wash down the stress of a long work week with a cocktail or a beer and a show. I sing live, which is a rare thing to see in a drag show, and after I pour my heart out into the microphone, I pack up my bag and go home to the man I love, the man I will marry in 6 months. I hold a series of respectable jobs in the community, in the beauty and fashion industry, in a non-profit organization that offers services to the mentally and physically disabled, and in radio. When people look at me, they don’t often know right away that I’m a drag queen. Occasionally, I’ll be recognized for performing at Myrna’s on Friday, and when they finally figure it out, they are shocked at how different, how “normal” I look without the corset, the lashes, the heels, and the makeup.

They’re especially surprised when they realize that not only am I a drag queen, but I’m also biologically female, a girl from birth. And I’m straight, too.

But on the stage, in the gay bar, in my community and among the people I love and cherish, I’m an equal. I’m just like everyone else. I have a job. I maintain a home and a healthy relationship. I dream, I strive. I also have flaws, and fears, and regrets. I dream of a day when I can show my future children how far we’ve come in the simple arena of basic human rights. I strive to make this day a reality before I’m old and bitter about the way my government has ignored my cries for equality.

Proposition 5 ensures everyone has the same basic human rights to a warm home and security at their job. As it stands, my job in the gay bar could be in jeopardy if Prop 5 fails. I could be terminated for loving a man and owning ovaries.

Of course, that’s a ridiculous side of the issue – a straight girl being fired from her job at the gay bar. But it’s an issue my friends deal with every day in jobs and in dwellings that aren’t nearly as tolerant or accepting as my gay boss.

Dan Savage and the Trevor Project say it gets better. And I believe that. But it won’t, it never will, unless we do something.

The time to do the right thing is now.

Yes on 5.

F. Colleen Crinklaw
Drag Singer

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Editor’s note: For those who have a tin ear for humor, Bent Alaska notes that Colleen’s gay boss at Mad Myrna’s has no intent, to anyone’s knowledge, of committing sexual orientation discrimination by firing Colleen — regardless of the outcome of the April 3 Anchorage election.