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