ASU's Educational Outreach and Student Services postponed Drag U Downtown's events a day before its DragUMania show.
Drag U Downtown hosts three drag-related events each year, this year being a movie screening, brunch and the drag show. However, ASU informed the organization that the events would have to be canceled or rescheduled due to the sponsoring organization being listed incorrectly for two events and submitting the registry for one event a day late.
"It wasn't just the drag show, it was every single aspect of Drag U Downtown," Dia Granillo, a committee member for Drag U Downtown, said.
Granillo said events in the past have had the same problem with event registries, and yet, were still able to continue on.
"Those problems were able to be fixed. I'm not sure what's different about Drag U Downtown," Granillo said.
According to a University spokesperson in an email, the organization did not receive approval on time to proceed on the dates and times they originally requested due to a combination of factors, with incomplete information and insufficient security protocol that "couldn't be remedied in time."
In a letter written by Antonio Duran, the faculty adviser of Drag U Downtown, students within the organization had been working for months to put on these events for the community.
When the event was canceled by ASU, Duran said in the letter that students did not feel supported by the University. The letter stated that students were told a day prior to the event date and the University did not reach out to students to ensure mental health concerns were attended to.
"We the students do not feel supported by ASU at this moment because how can we when they are asking us to postpone the event days beforehand?" Granillo said.
Duran also stated that he did not feel like ASU tried to salvage the event by working with members of Drag U Downtown to resolve the registry discrepancies, despite the importance it had for the LGBTQ+ community.
"To be clear, they did say they could work with the students to reschedule the event," the letter stated. "In the initial meeting with the president, the staff member shared that it may work well in the fall because the semester is close to being finished."
Faculty and staff are ready to assist in planning a "successful event with our students" in the future, if they choose to reschedule, according to a University spokesperson.
A former member of Drag U Downtown, Pat Apap, started a GoFundMe to help support and raise money for the event to continue; however, it is now closed due to a lack of time. Drag U Downtown was not associated with the GoFundMe.
"Realizing that this funding would get pulled out right because of the University's decision, I wanted to help as much as I can," Apap said. "And (the) first thing I thought of is trying to put a GoFundMe together and sending it out."
According to a University spokesperson, ASU has shown a "longstanding support for LGBTQ+ student organizations and their events."
"In a time when LGBTQ+ individuals continue to be targeted and erased on a federal, state, and local level, I am saddened that this series of events has made communities feel this way at ASU," Duran stated in an email. "It is my personal belief that a different approach would have been appropriate to uplift and celebrate LGBTQ+ students as there were measures in place to attend to their safety, but what I am inspired by was the deep resilience that the student organizers of Drag U Downtown displayed in the face of the news."
This story is developing and may be updated.
Edited by Alysa Horton, Abigail Beck and Alexis Heichman.
Reach the reporter at sjames51@asu.edu and follow @sennajames_ on X.
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Senna is a sophomore studying journalism and mass communication with a minor in Spanish. This is her fourth semester with The State Press.
