By Kat Boushee

CCSU PRIDE held its annual Drag Ball on April 27 to benefit the Jim Collins Foundation, a charitable organization that fundraises in order to provide gender-confirming surgery to transgender people who wish to have the surgery and do not have the money to fund the surgery on their own.

PRIDE had raised money throughout the past few weeks by allowing people to donate to see certain prominent members of the CCSU community in drag.

Several students, including Student Government Association president-elect Eric Bergenn, SGA vice-president-elect Liz Braun and former PRIDE treasurer and SGA senator Justin Blain, dressed in drag and walked the Drag Ball runway for the cause.

Blain explained his willingness to be auctioned off, saying that it was a good cause and that last year they had “a huge success and it helps to donate to the cause.”

According to Larry Clark, president-elect of CCSU PRIDE, the club reached and perhaps exceeded their goal of $500. Exact figures will not be in until later this week.

Bergenn found it to be “an interesting experience to step out of [his] normal realm,” and mentioned that he “thought it was something worth doing.”

The ball opened with amateur drag kings and queens performing numbers and being judged by professional drag kings and queens. The actual scheduled performances started about an hour late, and the hosts laughingly commented that they were running on “gay time.”

The winner of the amateur drag king contest, Justin Hurr, and the amateur drag queen winner, Trixie Payne, performed to riotous applause and were ultimately chosen by the hosts on the basis of audience cheers and applause.

The hosts themselves, drag kings and queens from the area, were voted in by PRIDE and the main host, Electra Shock, donated her pay back to PRIDE to allow them to hire a fifth host.

PRIDE is an organization that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students on campus, and puts on educational programs for the campus at large.