A drag queen was paid $11,500 to perform two songs at the University of Oklahoma’s “Crimson and Queens” drag show on Oct. 17, 2024, according to the contract between the performer and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma.

The performer, who goes by the stage name Plasma, was paid $11,500 to perform a two-song set at Crimson and Queens, participate in a meet-and-greet, and engage in a question-and-answer session.

While $11,500 for only a handful of hours’ work would represent a huge sum to the average Oklahoman, it is substantially less than what OU officials have paid prior drag-queen performers.

A performer who goes by the stage name Yvie Oddly, the headliner for the University of Oklahoma’s annual Crimson & Queens drag show on April 28, 2023, was paid $18,000.

However, the payment to Plasma was comparable to the amount provided to another drag-queen performer for another OU event.

As part of Camp Crimson, described as “an orientation experience designed to assist undergraduate students as they transition into their first year at the University of Oklahoma,” students could attend Drag Bingo on Aug. 15, 2023, which the university described as “a signature event during Camp Crimson.”

The celebrity host of Drag Bingo was an individual whose stage name is Kornbread Jete, who was paid $11,000 for an appearance out of the $17,674 total spent on the Drag Bingo event.

In 2023, OU officials identified a Crimson and Queens drag show sponsorship as a portion of the funding the school had dedicated to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) programming.

Plasma is listed as a national drag ambassador for the organization, Drag Out the Vote. The organization’s mission statement declares, “We educate and register voters at drag events online and offline, by organizing local and national voter activations. Led by fierce drag artists across the nation, we advocate for increased voter access and engagement.”

In a 2023 impact report, the most recent available, Drag Out the Vote founder Jackie Huba declared that the group was working to oppose legislation in many states that restricted drag performances, declaring such laws would “play on long-held anti-LGBTQ tropes and hurtful stereotypes that equate members of our community as dangerous” and “create more stigma, discrimination and ultimately violence against LGBTQ folks—particularly transgender and nonbinary people.”

Oklahoma was among the states that considered legislation that year that could have restricted some drag shows.

House Bill 2186, by state Rep. Kevin West, R-Moore, stated, “It shall be unlawful for a person to engage in an adult cabaret performance which is harmful to minors or to organize or authorize the viewing of an adult cabaret performance which is harmful to minors on public property or in a location where the adult cabaret performance could be viewed by a minor.”

West noted the phrase “harmful to minors” has long been defined in Oklahoma law. State law declares harm has occurred when minors are exposed to “nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sadomasochistic abuse” at a performance designed to “appeal to a prurient interest in sex to minors” that the average adult would find “patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors” and that “lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors.”

He noted the bill would not prohibit all drag shows but would apply only to situations where children were exposed to nudity and/or sexual conduct.

[Photo via @Plasma_NYC on X. For more stories about higher education in Oklahoma, visit AimHigherOK.com.]