A performer entertains at the Boybutante Ball on April 16, 2016. According to Boybutante AIDS Foundation board of directors chair Robert Hagwood, the board makes an attempt to add variety to the performers every year by way of a talent search. “We have a very loyal following from an entertainers’ standpoint and just to kind of mix it up a little bit, we try to have that one special spot and so that’s our drag search — or talent search,” Hagwood said. Photo via Facebook, courtesy of Craig Gum.
By VALERIA GARCIA-POZO – News Editor
The Boybutante AIDS Foundation facilitated a week long series of events leading up to the 27th annual Boybutante Ball, a drag showcase to benefit individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and autoimmune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
The 27th annual Boybutante Ball took place on April 22 at 9 p.m. at the 40 Watt Club. The event is a drag showcase hosted by the Boybutante Autoimmune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization which came out of a desire to bring drag to the Athens community.
“It’s basically a three-hour drag show,” Robert Hagwood, Boybutante AIDS Foundation Board of Directors Chair, said. “We started in 1989 and it was originally founded by a group of friends that were coming back from a trip to Charleston, and they had attended an event similar to the Boybutante in Charleston.”
The ball featured performers who have been invited by the board of directors as well as the winner of an annual talent search held at Hendershots. Daniel Self has performed at the Boybutante Ball in previous years with the Athens Showgirl Cabaret troupe.
“Most of the preparation as a performer goes into designing your clothing and costume for your character. And then, of course, there’s rehearsal nights, where the drag troupe would come and we would reveal our song and who appears when, who moves when, so that we didn’t have traffic,” Self said. “I had to build a giant blue ball gown to be worn with a matching cape, so that was a fun experience.”
According to Hagwood, the goal of the event is to benefit and raise awareness for the population in Athens affected by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS. He believes it is important to distribute the funds raised locally.
“I think for me, what I see is that it shows that we’re committed to Athens. We’re committed to making life better here, and I’ve been around a lot of different AIDS-related organizations, AIDS-related fundraising, and I think it’s really important for me to see a good kind of grassroots effort at home,” Hagwood said.
The proceeds of the Boybutante Ball, as well as a number of smaller fundraising efforts from the foundation throughout the year, go to a local nonprofit organization called Live Forward (formerly known as AIDS Athens), which works to provide housing, resources and other benefits to those affected by HIV and AIDS.
“We provide a variety of services everyday, from housing to support groups, counseling, we have a food bank, things like that. The money that we get from Boybutante helps us to further those services, perhaps to be able to provide food at a support group, or just even day-to-day assistance that arise at the agency,” Live Forward residential services manager Lynnsey Lafayette said.
For Live Forward, which receives 95 percent of its revenue from federal funding, the yearly donations from the Boybutante AIDS Foundation serve a crucial purpose, as they are unrestricted funds for the agency.
“Sometimes they go towards buying furniture for a client that was homeless and going into housing. We try to help by helping them get a mattress, things like that,” Lafayette said. “Last year, they gave us over $30,000, and that really, really enabled us to keep everything moving, to keep our clients’ rents paid, keep the employees paid, you know, just down to that.”
Self believes it is important to take part in events with causes that benefit the LGBT community as a whole.
“In a typical drag show, (when) you’re raising money for yourself, you would take tips — personal tips — for performance. The difference is you’re raising money that is all donated to a cause,” Self said. “A kind of tradition in the LGBTQ community of being involved in your community and watching out for each other. I think it’s important that we help to raise money together.”
Without the funds raised by the Boybutante AIDS Foundation, Lafayette believes Live Forward’s role in aiding their clients would be greatly hindered.
“A lot of the services that we provide are clients we would have to cut back on, like support group leaders,” Lafayette said. “That would be incredibly sad, to not be able to help out when we can to buy furniture for our homeless clients that are going into an apartment with nothing to sleep on, you know, it’s the little things like that that really add up.”
To Hagwood, seeing the benefits the funds have on the population in Athens affected by HIV/AIDS is rewarding and
humbling.
“They’re able to pay rent. They’re able to buy medication. They’re able to stock the food bank. They’re able to pay somebody’s electric bill,” Hagwood said. “To know that you can have a little bit of that, that’s why we do what we do. It’s that part of it.”
In addition to the tangible results of the Boybutante AIDS Foundation’s fundraising, Hagwood believes events such as the Boybutante Ball create a safe space.
“One of the things that we really do emphasize is that our events are ‘come-as-you-are’ events. I like to describe it as ‘come and do you, and do the best you you can,’ and whatever that is, whether it’s gay, straight, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered, if you are androgynous, whatever,” Hagwood said. “We’re a safe place for you to come and do that, so I think we give those monthly places for people to do that and I think that is really important.”
