Drag and science unite as LGBTQ researchers bring their work to the stage — for inclusion

In front of a sold-out crowd in downtown Toronto, a performer with the stage name Elle Nyx the Space Witch takes to the stage to deliver a presentation on the process of ram pressure stripping.

Ram pressure stripping, in which the gas is stripped away from a galaxy as it enters a cluster of other galaxies, is a process astronomers believe affects star formation.

But in this case, it's also the inspiration for a performance in an event that's meant to challenge stereotypes about who belongs in science, technology, engineering and medicine (STEM).

For University of Toronto astronomer Leo Alcorn — a.k.a. Elle Nyx — this meant dropping the traditional trappings of the professional scientist to perform in fishnet stockings, a star-spangled dress and a red lace robe, representing the dark matter, stars and gas that make up galaxies.

"I thought, why not show people what this looks like," she said. "So the costume that I'm wearing figures very heavily in my act." 

At this event, held in a packed bar in downtown Toronto, Alcorn is one of four scientists who took to the stage to present their work — and then performed in drag.

The event, called Science is a Drag, is the brainchild of a group of scientists who saw a need to create more inclusive spaces in STEM with drag.

"Scientists can look however they want to, however they identify and feel comfortable," said co-founder Shawn Hercules. "Science is a Drag humanizes scientists and shows that we come in many shapes, forms, sizes."

Science is a Drag began in 2019. Hercules was doing their PhD at McMaster University in Hamilton, investigating why triple-negative breast cancer affects women of African ancestry in a particularly aggressive way. They bumped into fellow PhD student Samantha Yammine at a Toronto viewing party for the TV show RuPaul's Drag Race. 

By that point, Yammine, a science communicator known as Science Sam on social media, and Hercules had already met through Instagram. Yammine mentioned she had been mulling over the idea of producing a science-based drag show, and asked Hercules if they wanted to get involved.

"I was like, yes, that sounds amazing, and it just started from there," Hercules said.

Hercules had grown up in a religious environment in Barbados, and had never been to a drag show before arriving in Canada for their PhD. They admit that getting comfortable with drag required overcoming their own discomfort and preconceptions.

But it also took a real courage based on the barriers many LGBTQ scientists face within STEM itself. 

A 2019 report by the U.K.-based Royal societies for Chemistry and Astronomy and the Institute of Physics, for instance, found that 28 per cent of LGBTQ respondents stated that they had at some point considered leaving their workplace because of the climate or discrimination towards LGBTQ people.