It Takes a Village to Raise a Drag Queen

It Takes a Village to Raise a Drag Queen

Jun 28, 2019 | Day in the Life

Earlier this year, oSTEM at Mount Sinai and the Stonewall Alliance hosted the first Mount Sinai Charity Drag Race. As one of the organizers, I can honestly say that the inception of this event started as a joke. Hosting a drag competition at a Hospital/Graduate School/Medical School was a nice thought, but it would be an over the top event that we definitely didn’t have the means to bring it into fruition. Thinking of planning such an enormous event was a little intimidating, but we figured that we could gauge interest from the Mount Sinai Community. We were shocked by the enthusiasm we received, so we kept on rolling with the punches.  (more…)

Queer and Here: Leading Urban Youth with Pride

Queer and Here: Leading Urban Youth with Pride

Jun 28, 2018 | Day in the Life

I was five years old when I knew for the first time that I was slightly… different. I had gotten into my mom’s closet, tried on her black strappy high heels, and found a beautiful dark red lipstick in her makeup bag. At the time, I thought that it was perfectly normally for any five year-old boy to strut up and down their parent’s bedroom in high heels, rocking the imaginary runway but alas— years later I discovered it wasn’t a shared experienced amongst my peers.  (more…)