A video of a drag show has gone viral, eliciting both positive and negative reactions from viewers all around the United States.
The presentation was held in a Wisconsin high school’s staff talent show.
This year’s Middleton High School talent event will include a drag performance by instructor Matt Kashdan, who immediately decided he wanted to participate.
“I’m like, this opportunity could be cool to show my art, my version of art,” he said. “But it’s also a cool opportunity for me to show students like, who cares, just go be yourself.”
It was an entertaining show, but not everyone in the audience was pleased.
Immediately after the performance, a worried parent contacted the school and published it on social media with a conservative media source, which garnered condemnation from all around the world, Kashdan claims.
“People were calling me a groomer, people were calling me a pedophile, people were calling me a narcissist,” Kashdan said. “It was homophobic.”
Prior to the performance, Kashdan said that he had been given permission by an organizer.
“In the future, staff performance will be reviewed by a team, including an administrator,” an official from the school system stated after the criticism.
After receiving a barrage of hate mail from around the nation, Kashdan said the support he got from his pupils and the school system was more than he ever expected.
“The coolest thing was that when I went back to school after all of this media stuff had happened, all around the school there were these signs posted saying, ‘We support you, LGBTQ rights matter.’”
Even after all the ups and downs, Kashdan stated he had no regrets.
“This whole experience honestly made me want to do drag more,” he said. “All this has done has, like I said before, just showed me the power of drag and how important it is for our community.”
It has been confirmed by Kashdan that he will continue to perform as a drag artist in the near future. For reasons unrelated to his performance, he will not be returning to Middleton High School as a teacher next year.
