Village Montreal is subverting anti-trans hate by transforming signs adorned with it into a wearable dress for the drag community.
Drag performances have become a flashpoint for anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests across Canada and the U.S., with a particular focus on children’s libraries and drag storytelling hours being targeted with hateful and sometimes violent anti-trans rhetoric. Those protests are part of a rising movement in the country, according to several Canadian anti-hate groups.
In a bid to counteract that hate, Village Montreal partnered with creative agency LG2 in an initiative that took hateful protest signs and cut them into pieces that could be used to fashion a dress. That dress was then modeled by Montreal drag artist Sasha Baga in a statement against the hate that could be used as publicly as the protests are.
“At a time when hate speech towards 2SLGBTQ+ communities is escalating, especially against the trans community, we saw LG2’s powerful idea as a great opportunity to celebrate the art of drag – an art that until recently was confined to cabarets, bars and the Village,” explains Gabrielle Rondy, executive director of Village Montreal. “We wanted to pay tribute to drag queens and drag kins, artists with heart and courage who share our values of inclusion, innovation and respect.”
“I firmly believe that beauty begets beauty,” adds Baga. “Drag culture is more than just entertainment, it’s a community of people who value the differences that make each person unique. Seeing drag queens and drag kings in public spaces raises questions, and our job is to answer them by doing what we do best: celebrating diversity.”
The dress will be displayed in Village Montreal’s offices, and is also featured in a video filmed at drag cabaret Bar le Cocktail, in which Baga models it under a shower of confetti made from the same hateful signs as the dress itself. The video has been shared across the community association’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter pages organically, and a paid boost on Facebook and Instagram ran over the weekend from April 28 to May 1 in French for the Montreal and Quebec City areas.
The dress has also been featured in PR work on Salut Bonjour, the most watched morning show in Quebec, as well as on CTV News online, Noovo Info, MSN and iHeart Radio.
