Georgetown University’s inaugural student drag competition, Mx. Georgetown, saw a drag king use an acronym to explain why most of his School of Foreign Service (SFS) friends are single.

“My SFS friends are very talented, they’re very smart. You could say they have a lot of Charisma, Uniqueness, a lot of Nerve and a lot of Talent,” Emily Scheibe (CAS ’24), under the drag persona Jack the Bulldyke, said at the April 12 event.

The competition featured six student drag queens and kings who performed in a pageant format in the Intercultural Center (ICC) Auditorium, with the winner crowned Mx. Georgetown. GU Pride, a student organization for LGBTQ+ people at Georgetown, GU Queer People of Color (QPOC), an organization for LGBTQ+ students of color, and the Georgetown Program Board (GPB), an organization that provides affordable events to students on campus, sponsored Mx. Georgetown, which organizers plan to hold annually. 

The six drag queens and kings — Lexi Con, Ivy League, Justin Beaver, Lex Luth Whore, Jack the Bulldyke and Prince of Cats — first answered three questions from the emcee. They then performed a coordinated dance to “PURE/HONEY” by Beyoncé before demonstrating their individual talents through standup, song and art. In the final performance, contestants each lip synced to their song choice. 

Olivia Yamamoto (SFS ’24), under the drag persona Justin Beaver to mimic Justin Bieber, said they approached the Q&A portion of the show by trying to imitate “the worst man you know” and recreate their childhood dreams as a Belieber, a fan of Bieber.

“I think my purpose on that stage was to heal the now-lesbian or queer former Beliebers and have me up there pretending to be Justin Bieber and making their dreams come true,” Yamamoto told The Hoya.

Calvin Engstrom (CAS ’24), who performed under the drag persona Lexi Con, as a nod to his position as president of the Georgetown Undergraduate Languages and Linguistics Society (GULLS), said he chose to lip sync to Kate Bush’s “Babooshka” because it represented Lexi Con’s transformation from a purely academic student to one who also enjoys more social aspects of college life. 

“I wanted it to be just ridiculously campy, because in the best lip syncs, you tell a story of some sort,” Engstrom told The Hoya. “And I think ‘Babooshka’ tells a great story, and it translates in a weird and wonderful way to the bimbofication of Lexi Con.”

Jack Dougherty (CAS ’26), a member of GU Pride who was the main organizer of the event, said his research into queer history and drag in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas, inspired him to put on Georgetown’s first drag show.

“What steered me there is the history of drag, especially from my hometown, knowing that there can be something that preserves or snapshots these little yearly moments in this community,” Dougherty told The Hoya. “Because I don’t think we have that. And I really want to create that.”

The competition was named Mx. Georgetown to play off GBP’s annual Mr. Georgetown event, an annual male beauty pageant, according to Dougherty.

Scheibe said that, while Mr. Georgetown gives its contestants the opportunity to explore their masculinity, Mx. Georgetown gives its participants the opportunity to explore gender in a similar way.

“Now we had an opportunity for queer people to do it, and in such a strange and bold and really out there way, showing people that you can express yourself however you want and especially with the theme of gender or really, I guess, the absence of gender,” Scheibe told The Hoya. 

Allie Gaudion (CAS ’26), who was the drag queen Ivy League — “the princess of your dreams or nightmares” — said she found community among the participants of Mx. Georgetown.

“It was this whole new section of queer life that we hadn’t really touched before,” Gaudion told The Hoya. 

Engstrom, who was ultimately crowned Mx. Georgetown, said winning was a pleasant surprise but that he wanted to commemorate the moment with the other contestants, recognizing their role in the production too.

“I was over the moon and also ready for everyone else to get back on stage and celebrate the fact that so many people went into putting this together,” Engstrom said. 

Scheibe, who made it to the final round with Engstrom, said that people coming together and doing drag creates space on campus for others to do the same. 

“I really hope there will be other opportunities anywhere you go,” Scheibe said. “I never thought that there would be for me to really try that, and then they ended up appearing.”