MANILA LUZON

DRAG QUEEN

Filipinos know how to have a good time, and perhaps no one knows this more than Manila Luzon at a more recent performance in the Philippines last year. “It was thrilling to be in the Philippines. I was wearing Filipino designer clothes, I was performing with whole bunch of performers in the Philippines, it was really great. I felt really welcome,” she recalls. “I felt like the long lost cousin that’s coming home and everyone was so amazing. We laid out the tables for a boodle fight, and I ate balut for the first time, that was disgustingly good. And yeah, I just had the great time, it was really fun.”

Manila Luzon needs no introduction, and we mean that in a non-geographical sense. Even for those who aren’t caught up to speed with the RuPaul’s Drag Race universe, the striking name has for sure been thrown around in some fleeting conversation or for the more rabid of fans, heated discourse on the latest happenings on the Emmy award winning reality TV show. While she wasn’t the first, nor will she stand to be the last, Manila Luzon sure is one of the more popular Filipino drag queen to hit global acclaim.

Known for her unapologetic aesthetic of quirk, kitsch, and camp, Manila Luzon has amassed a following that hangs on to every hot couture she will saunter in or a statement to society she will address through fashion and drag. As a Drag Race alum and all-star (double, of course), the Filipino drag personality has always sought to use her character to represent a gap where not so many have filled in. Representing Asian gay boys in the spectrum of the wildly vivid and spirited LGBTQ+ spectrum, Manila Luzon has in her own way, time, and space, shed light and conversation to issues that matter the most. More than just the name and heritage, Manila Luzon is a true realization of pride in both the exaggerated self, and as an active soldier in the plight of the community—and that makes her a winner, baby. Finally.—ARDC