Queen for a season
Local drag queens are glad to see one of their own on RuPaul’s Drag Race and hope the attention trickles down to Toronto acts
The Emmy-winning reality TV phenomenon RuPaul’s Drag Race returns this week for its 11th season and, just as it has every season before, Toronto’s drag community is ready to celebrate.
But this time, the stakes in the search for America’s next drag superstar are even higher, because among the15 hopefuls for the crown is the very first Canadian queen: Toronto’s own Brooke Lynn Hytes.
In the early 2010s, the Etobicoke-born Hytes, also known as Brock Hayhoe, was a staple in the drag community in Toronto’s Gay Village, with a regular show at the bar Crews & Tangos, a collection of pageant titles, and a unique background in ballet and gymnastics.
She was “a big fish in a small pond,” according to Hytes’ drag sister Katinka Kature, who’s been performing in Toronto for 10 years and hosts a weekly Drag
Race viewing party at Crews & Tangos.
Other local queens agree that Hytes (who apologized this week after a sixyear-old photo of her in blackface resurfaced) hit the ceiling of T.O. drag, reaching a level of popularity and success that was difficult, if not impossible, to surpass in the city — but things changed in 2014, when she won the highly coveted Miss Continental pageant and soon relocated to Nashville, Tenn., her home base for the last four years.
“We all knew she was a superstar in the making. When I heard she was cast on Season11my reaction was ‘Finally!’ I was surprised it took this long,” said Heroine, another local queen since 2007.
“When she first moved to the States, a few of us took bets as to when she’d make it onto the show.”
In 11 seasons (plus four all-stars offshoots featuring returning contestants), there have been a handful of queens not born in the U.S., including Season 1 winner BeBe Zahara Benet, who was born in Cameroon, and Season 6’s Courtney Act from Australia.
Drag Race prohibits international applications without a working U.S. visa, which means almost all of Toronto’s local queens are ineligible.
“Brooke Lynn did the work. She won the most difficult pageant in the world, she got the visa and she made the move,” said Toronto queen Baby Bel Bel.
“When you see her perform, she’s a lip-sync assassin; you can’t take your eyes off of her. I’m excited to see how far she goes, I think she could take the whole show.”
Baby Bel Bel became a full-time performer in the past three years, thanks in part to the surge in mainstream popularity that Drag Race has inspired. She, along with many other queens interviewed for this story, would compete on the show without question if the regulations allowed.
“We all try really hard to get our names out there, touring across Canada where we can,” she said. “But getting on TV is what allows the whole world to see you and it is something that you hope Canada eventually brings. Because Canada does have incredible talent and we’re going to see that with Brooke Lynn.”
Local queens have already benefited from the TV audience for Drag Race, inspiring a series of weekly viewing parties at bars in the Village and west end. Queen Allysin Chaynes co-hosts a popular party at the Gladstone Hotel and calls it “an industry within an industry.”
Theatre performer Pearle Harbour, who co-hosts the party Gaybourhood Watch at West Queen West’s Apt 200, agrees.
“We feel every ripple and quake that Drag Race makes. The groundswell popularity of the show means there’s a bigger and more voracious audience than ever: queers, straight people, tiny tots alike. People are starting to understand that everyone is welcome to drag. Everybody is invited to the party.”
But not all local performers are sharing the spoils.
“Ru girls will be booked in Toronto with a show fee in the thousands, while local performers are asked to open for them and receive nickels in comparison,” Heroine said. “Unfortunately, there are people who will spend $35 and up for a ticket to a Ru girl show in Toronto, plus pay for a meet and greet and even tip the Ru girl, but won’t come and support a local drag show that doesn’t have a cover because we haven’t been on television.”
Chaynes has felt this frustration as well, though she admits there has been a shift in the way homegrown queens are celebrated, such as in the CBC docuseries Canada’s a Drag, which showcases a different performer from across Canada every episode and just released its second season on CBC Gem.
“It’s amazing to see these hardworking performers finally get some attention, because it does get frustrating seeing these queens on television and thinking, ‘If I just had the chance. If I could just do that.’ It’s hard not to think of the ‘What if?’ when you’re up here,” Chaynes said.
On the other hand, she sees an upside to Canadian queens not appearing on Drag Race.
“I think it’s kind of a benefit that you can’t get on Drag Race in Canada because, if everyone’s end goal was a reality TV show, I think it would produce weaker talent,” she said. “People would be hungry for drag and want to do it for attention instead of making the work that you want to create.”
With Toronto’s drag scene making a name for itself, it’s more diverse than what we see on TV: bearded queens, bio (cisgender women) queens, and alternative queens and kings like Chaynes are just as popular as performers like Hytes.
“There is a ceiling in Toronto, but I would love to be working to be raising that ceiling and moving that top shelf of what we can do,” Chaynes said.
“When I look at a show like Drag Race and I get frustrated that I’m Canadian or hairy or weird, I know that that doesn’t have to be the end of my journey. Anything’s possible in your own scene if you work to make it there.”
Carly Maga is a Toronto-based theatre critic and a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @RadioMaga