As attractive drag queens took the stage to strut their stuff last Thursday, students like Freshman Becka Jackson sat in awe of their ability to cross dress.

“It just made me sick that she’s so much prettier than I am,” said freshman Becka Jackson. “Her thighs do not even touch…I felt so jealous”

Crowds of people gathered in the Brenton Student Center last Thursday night to witness the crowning of the 2003 Drag King and Queen.

Contestants for this year were judged on their appearance, creativity and performance and taking comfortable seats as their judges were professors, Dan Bauer, assistant professor of English and Nicholas Proctor, assistant professor of history.

Having judged the show before, Proctor said of this year’s, “…as always, it was absolutely fabulous.”

Sharing the same experience as Proctor was freshman Kena Stouwie said, “I liked the show a lot and I just wish that I’d brought money to donate.”

The drag show was a fund raiser put on by LGBTQA and raised $120 for the All Iowa AIDS Benefit.

Not only was the show absolutely fabulous, but it took a totally different look this year. The stage was lit in vibrant colors through the laser lighting provided by Assistant Dean of Students Rich Ramos.

“I just thought that the show was also a lot more technologically advanced this year,” said Proctor.

Entertaining the crowd between performances was emcee, Mona DuPris from Des Moines’ new gay nightclub The Frat House and professional drag queen Alycia Star from Des Moines’ largest gay dance club, The Garden.

The audience appeared to be entranced and enchanted by Alycia Star’s performance and appearance, but for some students the show was just something completely different to what they usually encounter.

“For me, it was interesting. I’ve never been to a drag show before but it is something that I’d do again,” said junior Bill Cook Jr.

With a remarkable improvement this year, Michael Raguet wooed his crowd with an electrifying performance of Bjork’s “It’s oh so quiet.”

It is also reported that there were several incidents that tried to hinder LGBTQA from hosting the show this year.

“Some of our posters were torn down in some housing units,” said Cory Pfister junior and LGBTQA president. “We put more posters up because we weren’t going to let them bring us down.”

Indeed, the LGBTQA’s show went on and it proved to have been well organized, despite the incidents.

Both Mona DuPris and Alycia Star were amazed by the support that the Simpson audience provided.

“It was my first time coming to Simpson and I think the crowd was a lot of fun and it seemed to be a very supportive community for a smaller school,” said DuPris.

For Alycia Star who has performed for larger and more diverse audiences such Drake University, things were a little different but good.

“I’ve never seen the interviews done before and I thought that was unique,” said Star.

“I was a lot more comfortable here though, because everybody was getting into it and people applauded because they liked the performance.”

Contending for the crown in the Drag King category were: sophomores Greta Hanson, Amber Woodley and, in tandemwith her boyfriend, junior Sara Neppl and senior Sean McRoberts. In the Drag Queen category, contestants were: junior Brian Johnson as Mona Louder and junior Michael Raguet as Svenja Moniani.

In an indisputable effort, the judges decided to crown both Amber Woodley and Greta Hanson as Drag King 2003 and Michael Raguet as Drag Queen 2003 with Brian Johnson as first runner-up.