LGBT+ History Month: The World’s First Drag Down Syndrome Collective Join Calum McSwiggan

Posted By: Fubar Radio On:


Joining Calum to talk about members of LGBT+ community living with disabilities, was the outstanding and inspiring collective Drag Syndrome.

Drag Syndrome is the world’s first drag collective featuring drag kings and queens with down syndrome. Calum was joined by members Horrora Shebang and Justin Bond, as well as the groups Creative Director Daniel Vais. They touched on their incredible success since launching, their plans to globalise Drag Syndrome – after already conquering Sweden and Norway – and how they fight off any negativity that comes their way. Justin noted how he “doesn’t like to hate the haters” adding – “If you think it’s bad for us, you’ve got to stop what you’re doing anf talk about what we do best in life.”

Horrora went on to discuss the prejudice the collective experienced while at the Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire. He spoke on how the security guards would say “you can’t leave him, he’s down syndrome”. Horrora was refused entry into the toilets at one point, purely due to his disabled condition. Horrora, along with the rest of the group, use these negative experiences on stage within their Drag: “It’s like a see-saw, we use each other’s ups and downs.”

Off air, the collective told us how previous radio stations have tried to marginalise them and tell them what to say. They praised FUBAR for hosting a platform where they could be completely free, open and true to themselves.

Sue Sanders, Chair of LGBT+ History Month also joined Calum within this to discuss the inspiration behind creating LGBT+ History Month. As a supply teacher, and her once co-chair a full-time teacher, they were both “utterly frustrated by the total silence about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in schools.” After witnessing consistent homophobic bullying, the idea was spawned –  “If we had a month which celebrated LGBT+ people, based on the model of Black History Month, maybe that would make a difference.”

The full episode is now available here, on iTunes and Spotify.

https://twitter.com/FubarRadio/status/1099024385564909568


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