A growing Merseyside community is giving “misfits and outcasts” the welcoming space they’ve always been looking for.
When Deka, a student from St Helens, is wearing her usual go-to gothic make-up look of black eyeliner and cold blush, she isn’t naïve to the gawking stares she gets whilst walking around Liverpool City Centre. But all those looks of disapproval turn into glances of admiration, once the 21-year-old steps through the doors of Heaven Nightclub – the host venue of the city’s latest drag alternative competition.
Deka, an equine podiatry student, told the ECHO: “I’ve always struggled with being the misfit, being the one who gets bullied and generally just being someone who didn’t fit in with everyone else.
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"I wish I could go back now and tell my younger self, the one who was getting bullied for being an emo, that you’re going to go somewhere and you’re going to find your people.”
Despite only having started drag last year, Deka was crowned the winner of the second competition and earned herself a paid performance slot at the Victoria Street venue.
She said: “I’m two completely different people when I’m not in my drag get-up. I’m normally very shy and reserved and like a hermit crab. I couldn’t tell you the last time I went out and met my friends because I just prefer to spend my time at home alone. I have a lot of anxiety when I’m around others and with outdoor spaces. But, when I’m Deka, that all goes and I think that's because people have come to the space for a reason. It makes me feel free and like I can do the absolute most.
The punk-inspired event was created by Shuv Light, the self-proclaimed “goth queen” of Liverpool’s Pride Quarter scene. The 27-year-old, from London but living in Bootle, wanted to create a space where others who don’t fit in with social norms could feel safe and not go through the experiences she faced alone.
The Liverpool Hope University student said: “When I was a teenager, I didn’t have anywhere to go where I could fit in. There have been so many times in my life where people have just shouted abuse and threw things at me and sometimes squared up to me just literally because of the way I look. I know how it feels to be walking around all alone, it’s awful, it's one of the worst feelings.”
While on the night it may just look like a lip-sync competition to the average attendee, Shuv explained it is much more than that to those who don’t always have role models to look up to. Shuv, a costume designer at Bold Street’s Albert Schloss, added: “When you’re emo or goth, you’re automatically looked at as an outcast and that’s okay because we now have a space where all the misfits can come together and not be by themselves.”
One community member who was thankful for Shuv’s initiative was Charlie Lucely. The 25-year-old from Wallasey, Wirral, said “preconceived notions and outdated stereotypes” are something she can forget about when the event is running.
The drag artist told the ECHO: “There’s such a sense of community that it just makes you feel much more comfortable in yourself and you don’t have to worry about judgement. You’re in an environment where people just want to enjoy themselves. To be able to walk into a room where everybody is doing something a bit different to the usual, a bit alternative, it just made me feel so much more accepted and welcomed. There are no rules or certain criteria you have to follow to be part of the family.”
The Punk Drag Night is set to return to Heaven Nightclub, Victoria Street, towards the end of February.
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