ATHENS, Ohio — The Athens Drag Collective is challenging stereotypes and accessibility barriers, and in the process introducing local audiences to the craft.
Max Vailey remembers the Athens Drag Collective’s “show that went wrong.” Club members got stuck in the elevator, wardrobe pieces malfunctioned, and the performance drew only 10–15 audience members.
Still, Vailey remembers it as “one of the best.”
“We just had so much fun,” they told the Independent.
And fun is the name of the game for the club, which has grown since its founding in 2025 to host free drag performances, fundraisers, workshops, and group activities for members. The group centers on making drag accessible “for anyone and everyone.”
Building drag community
Drag is the performance of an exaggerated form of gender, which often involves creating a character through costumes and makeup.
The Athens Drag Collective’s next event is a collaboration with the Student Cooperative Organization, which will take place on June 27 at 7 p.m. and support the Kaleidoscope Youth Center, an organization for Ohio’s LGBTQ+ youth. Those interested can reach out to the group’s Instagram for more information.
Vailey’s decision to found the Athens Drag Collective was five years in the making, and it all started with “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
After starting as an online drag performer in 2020, Vailey’s long-term goal was performing in a production of the cult classic musical. But the end of the pandemic and the shift away from digital drag shows left them with few options: Because they were under 21, Vailey found during their gap year in Cincinnati that they couldn’t perform or watch drag performances at many venues.
After starting school at Ohio University, they tried joining an on-campus production of “Rocky Horror,” but faced an obstacle: accessibility. Vailey considers accessibility to be one of their personal core values, and found that the “Rocky Horror” venue was not fully financially and physically accessible.
So they took action.
“There was no other option,” Vailey said. “I had been thinking on it for all of freshman year, and then halfway through sophomore year I finally actually did all the paperwork and stuff. That was honestly my hold up for a long time.”
Paperwork done and constitution written, the Athens Drag Collective was born.
The collective hosts free shows that include accessibility features like sign language interpretation, digital viewing options, and epilepsy-friendly lighting.
By hosting performances outside of bars, the Athens Drag Collective also removed an attendance barrier for those under 21 years old. Vailey recalled 30–40 people who attended an Athens Drag Collective performance as their first drag show.
“That’s super cool, because then they can carry that with them, and they have a more nuanced understanding of what drag is moving forward,” they said.
The club not only prioritizes accessibility for viewers, but also club members. Anyone of any skill level is encouraged to participate, and no audition process is required.
Taking the stage
When Vailey founded the club, they worried that it would become a “Drag Race club,” referencing the popular competition show hosted by RuPaul. They wanted instead to challenge the stereotypical understanding of drag as gay men performing in hyperfeminine personas, and encourage more diversity.
Current president Alastor Dupuy joined the Athens Drag Collective during his freshman year at OU and has had to find the balance between his identity as a transgender masculine person with his drag persona.
“I really need to be kind of hyper-dragged in order to be comfortable, because it has to be so outrageously characterized that it’s not me as a girl, it’s me as a drag queen,” Dupuy told the Independent.
He said the Athens Drag Collective has many members with diverse gender identities, as well as many drag kings and “drag things,” a term used for performers who do not perform as either a male or female character.
For Dupuy, it’s important to not only challenge the popular understanding of drag, but use the art form as a platform to advocate for the queer community as a whole.
Pushing past political threats
Drag performance is under threat in many states through legislation that seeks to ban it in public spaces and in the presence of minors.
Ohio House Bill 249, or the “Enact the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act,” has been passed in the House and is currently active in the Senate. If it becomes law, HB 249 would ban performances by those who “exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performer’s or entertainer’s biological sex” in public spaces.
Athens Drag Collective members like Deer Gonzafles recognize the historic roots of drag and use it as a form of protest. Just this week, Gonzafles participated in a protest in Columbus while in drag.
“The act of doing drag, of presenting yourself, is very political,” Gonzafles told the Independent. “It’s a form of resistance that just comes very natural to a lot of people.”
Gonzafles has been doing drag since age 14 and found a community with the Athens Drag Collective after arriving on campus. Gonzafles recalled seeing two people in drag at the student involvement fair and immediately gravitating toward them.
When it comes to performing, Gonzafles looks forward to the getting-ready process, and the sense of community that comes with it, the most.
“We’re laughing, we’re talking, we’re sharing this very intimate moment of preparing for performance and making your look, and I think that, for whatever reason, it’s very beautiful to me,” Gonzafles said.
Last fall, the Athens Drag Collective hosted a performance of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” advertised with a flyer that read “Free,” “Accessible,” and “Gay,” and that featured a sign language interpreter.
Now, as they enter their senior year, Vailey has seen the club they founded grow and continue to evolve.
“I’ve never done anything like this before, but I also really struggled to just sit and do nothing,” Vailey said. “And, I felt this fiery burning with me to do this thing, and now that it’s happening, it hits me in waves, where I’m like, ‘Holy crap, I made this thing, I started it.’”
