Valentine’s Day weekend at the VORTEX in East Austin was more than the usual chocolates and flowers. The audience filing into the small black-box theater was lively — rocking dyed hair of various colors, leather vests, and vibrant patterned outfits. A cheetah print couch and bubblegum pink chairs were placed on stage.
From Friday through Sunday, the performance venue became the home of Butch Prom, a self-described event series celebrating lesbian, queer and trans masculinity.
“ We've gone to queer events from a few different groups, and we've never really found our home base," said Lee Farmer, who attended Saturday with his partner. "So I was really excited to find a place that was like queer [masculine].”
Each Butch Prom event is a little different. The first one last summer was a prom with a wrestling twist. For Halloween, it was a Monster Ball. For Valentine’s weekend, the organizers decided to put on a staged gameshow called Masc4Match.
“ If you've ever seen The Dating Game,” founder and co-producer Sophia Rumbarger said, “there's a contestant, and then there are three eligible bachelors. We're doing that, but as a drag show theater play.”
While the theme for each Butch Prom event changes, the central focus is designing a safe and fun space for people who present themselves in a masculine way.
“It's not about being exclusive. It's specifically about creating space for something that may otherwise not be highlighted. Butch lesbians, people who identify as trans masculine, trans men, studs, boys,” Rumbarger said. “We're saying this party is for you, and it's about you.”
Rumbarger, who identifies as a "butch lesbian" — those who present as more masculine — came up with the idea with a friend.
“We wanted to attend more events that were geared toward women like us,” she said.
She never saw the idea growing beyond her own backyard, though, until she discussed it with Olivia Emigh.
“I remember her saying something that changed my perspective entirely,” Rumbarger said. “She said, ‘You don't have to do that at your house; you can do that at a bar.’”
Emigh had wanted to produce something from the ground up that centered queer joy. One of her first ideas was a play on WrestleMania that would be rooted in masculinity. She started meeting regularly with Rumbarger to outline the first prom. The event would feature various activities like wrestling, shotgunning beers and crowning a prom king.
The organizers also wanted the event to showcase queer artists and vendors, and promote community causes. All proceeds from the that prom went to the Black Trans Leadership of Austin.
Butch Prom first posted to Instagram last June and quickly started gaining traction online. The wrestling prom sold out.
Bobby Pudrido, a local trans artist and drag king, was the night’s host. He started doing drag and emceeing three years ago, around the same time as Texas was seeing an uptick in anti-trans and anti-queer legislation.
“Butch Prom seemed more politically aligned than any other events I've done before,” he said. “So it was an easy yes.”
After the Monster Ball proved equally successful, the organizers wanted their next event to be totally different. Instead of throwing a party featuring drag performances, they decided to put on a performance that would feel like a party.
Rumbarger imagined a twist on a challenge from RuPaul's Drag Race. Drag queens impersonate a celebrity in a parody of the gameshow Match Game.
“I think that drag performers do celebrity impersonation probably better than anyone else,” she said. “I kept thinking to myself there's so many male celebrities, why aren't drag kings doing this more often?”
The team created Masc4Match, a play combining improv, drag kings and a dating element for Valentine’s Day. Three “butchelors” – Elvis Presley, Kermit the Frog and Pee Wee Herman – would compete for the affections of the “butchelorette,” Miss Piggy, by answering a series of hard-hitting questions and performing handpicked musical numbers for the audience.
In the end, all three nights at the VORTEX sold out.
“It feels so important for me and for us to be on the stage to be that comfortable and to share that with an audience, too. We exist. We're here,” said Travis Randy Travis, the drag king who played Kermit the Frog.
Audience members were just as excited to watch the show as the performers were to be in it.
Ally Lea, who attended the Saturday performance, said they loved the way the show expanded how masculinity could be portrayed beyond what is traditionally seen in media and by cisgender men.
“Everything is drag,” they said.
The organizers want to continue expanding the size and scope of their events. They're planning another prom this summer.
With queerness and transness being increasingly challenged by legislators, the team said events like theirs are only becoming more important.
“The entire premise of anti-queer legislation is for us to cower and for us to hide,” Pudrido said. “If we're having the time of our lives, that in itself is pushing back.”
