Sexy Sexy Drag Queen!
THE TIME HAS COME!!!
Finally after months and weeks of getting all of these together, I will be releasing the first episode of “Sutan’s Everything”.
I am excited to share with you all, a glimpse into my friendships, and creative process. These tutorials are meant to inspire and show you the organic flow of conceptualizing and making ideas come to life.
Monday, May 6th at 10 a.m. EST, we are showing my transformation of the lovely Kat Graham, as Josephine Baker. Kat is a thrilling young lady and we have played dressup together on numerous occasions.
I hope you enjoy “Sutan’s Everything”, I had a blast doing them.
So much love,
Raja
He’s an Idol and I love his work. One day maybe I can aspire to be this talented.
Reblogged from: sutanraja
#Hashtag #Homework… Not -.-
Homework and the New Now Next Awards, lol. A rainbow just exploded on my desk, how do I explain that in Arabic.?
HEART YOLK QUEER HISTORY- Monterey, CA
{When we were planning this tour, I asked my tour manager, Jerre, to look up some gay historical markers we could visit while we are on the road. Jerre is the bestest gay nerd so they promptly started researching and found that there was a severe shortage of LGBTQ history maps and that they might have a career in “queer cartography.” So, that’s when we decided to give this tour the dual purpose of our own little queer history/storytelling project.}
Monterey, CA- home of the Defense Language Institute and lots of military families- is not the most gay friendly place on earth, in fact there is currently not one gay bar in town. We did some internet research and found only one gay web resource, Monterey Pride, which hosts an annual pride festival and “one educational event per month.” After getting a little frustrated trying to find something of note for our gay report, I decided we should tell Jerre’s story.
Jerre lived in Monterey Bay for two years while studying Persian Farsi at DLI for the Air Force circa 2001 and 9/11. I’ve heard them talk bout how they joined the military “to be gay.” Growing up in rural Oklahoma as Bethann, (their birth name is Jerre Bethann Fine) they came out to their family at age 16 but were forbidden to talk about it outside of the home and forbidden to date. Joining the military, even under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was like an escape to become their true self. To become Jerre.
Going back to Monterey after 11 years was really emotional. It is the town where they first kissed a girl, first fell in love and first went to a gay bar for starters. This is what they said in an Instagram post upon visiting the bar which has since closed.
“When I was an 18/19 year old baby gay, this was called the Light House Bar and Grill, the only gay establishment in Monterey Bay, located just outside the gate of Soldier’s Field on Lighthouse Avenue. It was a 21 and up club, but the bartender told me that because I was a cute soldier I could come anytime. I was scared to drink anything other than a Shirley Temple. I took sips of of liquor and learned to like Manhattans and Cosmopolitans because that’s what the queens drank. I learned about Margaret Cho, Eddie Izzard and how to open a beer bottle with a lighter. I learned my name is beautiful and that I should “thank my mother everyday for the spelling.” It is now completely empty and being remodeled into something else but I have such an abundance of gratitude for the care these people took and invested in me as a fresh, impressionable queer youth.”
The Lighthouse was the only place in town that flew a rainbow flag but it was far from flamboyant. Under DADT, the soldiers knew to be discreet and the bar patrons knew to not ask too many questions. After 9/11, the military, under intense intelligence scrutiny, conducted regular “witch hunts” to kick out gay soldiers. When Jerre arrived at DLI, there was a woman who was on suicide watch for being lesbian and one witch hunt resulted in kicking out 20 Arabic linguists. With tensions as high as they were on base, Jerre describes the Lighthouse as a safe space, a place where you didn’t have to ask what kind of music someone liked to know they were family, a place where they called you by your real name.
The Lighthouse Bar and Grill closed down in 2006, right about the time Jerre was getting out of the Air Force and settling back in Oklahoma as an openly gay veteran. Jerre joined Servicemembers United to help repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. In 2007, they began speaking on behalf of gay veterans at forums and universities and in 2008, when Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern went on her ignorant tirade, Jerre was asked to respond on various news programs. Essentially, Monterey, CA turned a country baby gay into a world traveling queer film maker/activist. Sort of. That’s your Queer History Lesson for the day.
DADT was repealed on September 20, 2011 :)
Reblogged from: laurenzuni
