North Bay Pride to crown top Ontario drag performer

North Bay Pride is calling on drag performers across Ontario for a special competition in September, when the group will crown the province's top performer.

The event aims to celebrate drag and the LGBTQ2S+ community, and dispel hate and ignorance around who drag performers are, and what they do.

North Bay Pride holds a drag competition locally every year, but the organizers felt called to expand the event in light of a rash of protests and hate speech hurled at performers over performances like drag storytime.

"We decided we're going to do an Ontario-wide competition looking for a drag performance that we could crown for Ontario, and basically show that drag performers are not what these people are claiming they are," said North Bay Pride communications director Jason Maclennan.

He points to sentiments that drag performers "groom children," or "recruit" them, and says they're "so false, it's not even funny."

"Drag performing is an art. It's been art and entertainment that's been around since William Shakespeare, all the way to today. Drag performers have alway geared their performance for whatever their audience is."

Increasing community pride

North Bay hosted its first Pride celebration in 2017 and since then, it's grown to become both a community celebration and an event that attracts tourists from across the country.

"We are one of the economic drivers of tourism in North Bay. People never seem to realize that we bring in massive amounts of people for our pride event. We sell out hotels," said Maclennan.

Earlier this year, the organization held a Drag Persona Contest, hosted by well-known drag queens Lemon, Jada Shada Hudson and Kiki Coe. North Bay Pride also brought in the cast of Amazon Prime's The Lake, which is filmed in the city, to act as judges.

Despite the local community's support, Maclennan says North Bay Pride receives hate comments often, including on social media.

Sometimes they keep the comments up rather than deleting them, to show people why exactly Pride continues to be needed.

"It just blows my mind that we're in 2022, going on to 2023, and we're still having the same arguments, the same hate. You know, we thought COVID would teach people we need to treat people differently," said Maclennan.

"People are just being who they are and loving who they love. And that's all that should matter at the end of the day."

All Ontario drag performers are invited to submit a one-minute video showcasing their persona, with the public deciding the top six who will continue to the in-person final in North Bay

The only condition is that the performer can't have competed in drag on reality television, including series like Canada's Drag Race and Call Me Mother.

Judges will crown the top Ontario performer in September.