In June, The Chenango County Pride Alliance hosted a Pride edition of its Night of Illusion show, and Courtney Wells is pictured collecting tips from audience members during her drag performance. (Photo by Keith Lanfier)

NORWICH – The Chenango County Pride Alliance, an organization supporting the county’s LGBTQ+ communities, is hosting its bi-monthly Drag Me to BINGO event on July 8 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) building in Norwich.

The doors will open at 7 p.m., according to the event’s flyer, and bingo is set to begin at 8 p.m. Admission is $12 per person and includes nine bingo cards, said the alliance’s Executive Director RJ Shea.

The event will alternate between three bingo games and a drag performance, Shea said, and will include an intermission dance party, a 50/50 raffle and door prize. The night will conclude before 11 p.m., he said.

While the introduction of bingo in the United States dates back to the early 19th century, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, drag became widespread in the late 19th century, according to the National Museum of American History.

Drag Me to BINGO incorporates both the game of bingo and drag, which usually involves cross-dressing, or wearing clothing stereotypically made for the person’s opposite gender, as indicated by Encyclopedia Britannica.

Joshua Mahannah-Beehm, an Oneida County resident who was born in Norwich, said he had attended one of the bingo nights and enjoyed the atmosphere and caliber of performances.

“We're a small community– we don't bring in the big, mean kings and queens,” Mahannah-Beehm said. “We bring in our local guys, but our local guys are extremely professional.”

Shea said he recruits performers from all over Central New York and not just Chenango County.

Although the events may feature both drag queens and kings in addition to live vocalists, Shea said, the July 8 event will feature four drag queens– a host, two performers and a special guest.

Every month, the alliance alternates between hosting Drag Me to BINGO and its Night of Illusion show, which features around six drag performers, Shea said. The cast changes every month besides Shea’s monthly appearance as Courtney Wells, which he said is his stage name.

The alliance introduced Drag Me to BINGO in 2023 after facing poorly-attended shows in November and December 2022, Shea said. While a portion of admission goes toward paying the performers, he said the rest of proceeds are given to a local charity.

Shea said the alliance was able to raise and donate $1,000 in January for The Trevor Project, which supports suicide prevention among LGBTQ+ youth, and $1,200 in March for Liberty Resources, which offers services for those facing domestic violence. In May, he said the alliance raised $700 for its 1st Annual Chenango County Pride Festival, an all-day event set for August 26 at Boname Park in Oxford. Proceeds from the July 8 event will also go toward funding the festival, Shea said, and future events are posted on the alliance’s website and Wells’ Facebook page.

In hopes for a successful first annual festival, Shea said he doesn’t anticipate any problems involving hate, likewise to the positive reactions to his past events.

“Knock on wood, we have not had any problems with any hate nonsense, even for the shows on a monthly basis,” he said. “I'm hoping that that will be the same thing for the festival.”

The alliance has hosted the Night of Illusion shows since December 2019, Shea said, and tickets sold out quickly to the 80-person crowd in the Red Roof Inn’s VIP Lounge. Due to sold-out shows, he decided to instead organize events at the VFW, and he said the average audience count is 170 people.

At first, Shea said he had difficulty getting drag performers to participate in his events due to a lack of funding. Now that attendance has increased, he said he can pay his performers, raise money for charities and continue to provide a sense of community for the county’s LGBTQ+ population and nights of fun for everyone.

“Because we are so rural, we need to be heard, and there are a lot of LGBTQ+ people or residents of Chenango County– some of them are just afraid to even come out of the closet [to publicly announce their sexual orientation or gender identity],” he said. “So, I think that [helps] with us now starting to have a little bit more of a presence, not only with Night of Illusion shows and Drag Me to BINGOs.”

Besides a difficulty in achieving sufficient funding and active participation, Mahannah-Beehm also said there are not many LGBTQ+ support groups in Chenango County, and specifically Norwich, but organizations like the alliance’s are a step in the right direction.

“Norwich is on average about 10 years behind some of the bigger cities when it comes to their ways of thinking and their overall acceptance,” he said. “But it's nice to start seeing that there is some change in the community, that there is some more acceptance.”