When Kitty Smith, an artist disgruntled with Trump’s reelection, began to draw dragified versions of Jesus in 2024 to protest the increasing negativity toward LGBTQIA+ people across the country, never did she expect her idea to “yassify Jesus” would transform into a full-blown, flamboyant church service.
Working with Kara Sutra (the drag mother of the Haus of Sutra), she had decided a year ago to create a nonreligious, all-ages space for LGBTQIA+ people to build community together, called Drag Church. Now as they move toward their first anniversary, the duo plan to up the ante of extravagance and community engagement with the upcoming service, aptly named “REBIRTH.”
According to Smith, Drag Church was formed as a way to offer Queer people an alternative, nonreligious space for community building. She explained how, while showing her yassified portraits before Drag Church, that “it became clear [that people’s reactions were] a response to a very real and present need for connection and joy. People shared stories of exclusion and harm, and in that space, something began to shift.” She added that “Drag Church started to take shape as a radically inclusive and joyful gathering, where people could reclaim spirituality and reconnect with a sense of belonging on their own terms, because everyone deserves to feel holy in their own bodies.”
Kara Sutra told the SGN that although the Haus of Sutra has evolved over time from doing exclusively drag to adding, among others, burlesque performers, comedians, and fire dancers, there was still a need to grow the ability for it to connect with younger Queer people under 21 years old.
“I would get 18-year-olds asking if they could come to the shows,” she said.
She also stressed how important the Drag Church has become in engaging younger people in the art form: “I think that diversifying access is super important.”
In its time, the Drag Church has worked with and helped support local nonprofits. At its last show, plants were sold to fundraise for the cost of new furniture for Lambert House. (The proceeds of “REBIRTH” will also benefit Lambert House.)
Challenging norms
Drag Church was also intended by its founders to demystify drag in front of a Christian audience, and to challenge people’s perceptions of the divine.
“Drag is a protest wrapped in a sequined glove,” Smith said. Kara Sutra agreed.
Kara Sutra told the story of how she showed her conservative mother the recorded video performance of the Christmas show, called “The Yassification of Ebenezer Scrooge,” and watched in her facial reactions how she had to reconcile what she was seeing with what she had been told drag was from watching Fox News. The hope is that by exposing her mother to the art, she is forced to reconsider why she believes in anti-Queer sentiments.
Smith also shared that the church has been asked by attendees to do a preschool program, so that children may have a nonreligious environment (as most preschool programs in the US are still run privately through churches). The idea of taking Drag Church on the road has also been floated, inspired by the work of others, like Flamy Grant, who does Southern drag church tours.
The threat of violence against LGBTQIA+ people, particularly in drag spaces, has been a concern for the duo. After the bomb threat and gun shots against Renton’s Brewster bar and its owner’s house, because of a children’s drag story hour event held there, the Drag Church instituted a clear bag policy.
Ultimately, the pair’s hope is that one day their concept will be as ubiquitous as Turning Point USA, which has recently pushed heavily to be on every high school campus. The two shared their feelings that every community in the US should have access to an all-ages, Queer-affirming space. Smith explained how the new event “marks our one-year anniversary and centers on a timely theme: what it means to rebuild when old systems no longer serve us. At a time when many in our community are searching for something that feels both safe and expansive, Drag Church offers a space rooted in radical joy as a deliberate, collective practice of resilience, visibility, and reimagining what becomes possible together.”
Tickets for Drag Church: REBIRTH on April 4 can be found at https://ticketbud.com/events/7672416e-00b5-11f1-bf6a-42010a717003
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