We are Queer We are Here Maya the Drag Queen

so

all these people that you see are drag

queens

and they actually promote femininity in

different forms

there is no right or wrong femininity

there is

it’s the way how you portray it that is

how it is

meaningful in many ways now

as a child i was thrilled by theater and

i so wanted to be part of theater

so i was like you know whenever i was

working in

hyderabad and bangalore i you know

wanted to go to theater and perform and

all of that

but i felt that i was stagnant

i felt like i was not growing up like in

terms of

as an artistic career and that is when i

thought you know what

i’ll start watching movies and when i

watched a movie it was known as mrs dark

fire

so these are the different forms of drag

in india so if anybody asks me katakalli

kathakali dendestayam

and as theater person that i used to be

i used to

like love to act in so many uh like

place

theater place and all of that

so that’s when i saw mrs.fire now if

robin williams can do drag i can do drag

too

so with that i started creating this

character known as

maya or mayama mayama means

mother of illusions or mother of magic

because when i come on stage i provide

the magic of a woman or illusion of a

woman

now with that when after i created and

after i was open about

my sexuality and has a

outright outrageous queer performer

my family was against it i still have

family members calling my

parents and actually saying he deserves

a counselling you should send him for

counseling

and at the same time my friends left me

because

they couldn’t understand me or

understand my journey

now it’s been five years since i’ve been

performing as a drag queen

now with that i was going through a lot

of changes

in terms of me as a person in terms of

me

as an adult as well so

these are this is my first performance

as maya the drag queen

and with that i was not able to like you

know

be myself i was not able to like you

know perform to my fullest

but the same time with you know looking

at who i am and looking at who i am

truly i am

i sought to be like you know the

famous drag queen as my the drag queen

now there were times when there were

people actually

pushing me down telling me that you’re

not good enough you’re not good as an

uh performer you’re not but then i chose

to see within

i chose to actually say listen if i have

started this

i am actually going to be inspiring to a

lot of people

and with that i just kept moving forward

i just started doing more shows i

started doing more photo shoots

more uh you know video shoots and

a lot more like you know in terms of how

i can

communicate to people everywhere all

around the world

so with that i actually did a lot of

articles i did a lot of

videos in terms of how to educate people

on

drag as an art form

now i owe to mr kesha suri for actually

promoting drag culture in india as a

whole

he actually gave me lot of opportunities

and he gave me a lot of opportunities to

actually succeed

as a drag queen with that

i would like to say that we as indian

society we are

actually ignorant about the lgbtqia

community

we are not ready to accept them we are

not ready to actually

learn their journeys

that’s why i created a talk show known

as chaya with maya

where i actually you know portray a lot

of

you know i invite people from the

community and show that they are

actually human beings

they actually like to you know go to gym

they like to actually go and

eat at the same restaurant that you do

and with that i wanted to say that you

know

at the end of the day we as the

community we are human beings and you

should accept us the way we are

now with this people have so many

stereotypes about drag

a drag i feel uh you know is about

an art form there are people some people

who say that oh

you are transitioning to be a

transgender or you are trying to

cross-dress uh just for a living

or you are a sex worker you’re going to

kill people

but when are you actually going to look

at us as performers

as artists at the end of the day

as human beings

i’ve been asked a lot do you feel like a

woman

i at the end of the day i’m a cis man

performing as a drag queen

that’s it

now with you know with ignorance

stems hatred and with hatred

there’s no humanity you know there are

ways where we need to find how to

actually

support people from the community

like we are just human beings and we

just like to be supported by you

like at the end of the day sexuality and

gender is fluid

there are times when there are a lot of

people who thought they were straight i

thought i was straight at one point of

time

25 years of my life i thought i was

straight but then

like you know maya happened and then i

realized about my sexuality

and here i am i am a living proof for

you

so with that you have to show an

example to the society on how you can

make a difference

with the community irrespective of you

know

like if you are part of the community or

not part of the community

you can be an ally too and you can

actually support the community

so what we for example kesuri foundation

we actually use

um like you know sensitization trainings

drag queen story hour where we actually

promote

you know lgbt community in a different

way

in a different approach a different lens

that is of a humane approach

so this the what you see we are there is

drag queen story hour and actually go to

schools and teach children

about the community how to be sensitive

towards the community

like there are times when you have to

actually

embrace the community empower them

and it’s your way to mainstream them

now uh i’ve come towards the end of my

talk

but at the end of the day we are queer

we are here and we are here to stay

get used to it thank you so much

everybody