USG sponsors talent show catered to Ohio State’s LGBTQ community
By: Chantal Brown
Not everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, but some Ohio State students finally had their time to shine during Undergraduate Student Government’s first TikTok-based Queer talent show.
On Friday, members of the USG Justice and Equity committee showcased the talent show in order to celebrate “in a safe environment,” in response to a 2020 LGBTQ climate report that found two out of 10 students did not feel comfortable expressing their LGBTQ identities on campus.
“Basically, it was just a survey of kind of how, like, LGBTQ students were feeling about OSU. And we found that a lot of queer students didn't think there is necessarily enough queer programming at the school, like none of queer events, things like that,” Charles Van Leuven, a second-year in public management, leadership and policy and a committee representative, said.
Students who identified as a part of the LGBTQ community were given a week to upload a TikTok video demonstrating their talents for the show, which was streamed as a live compilation on USG's Twitch account. Student judges and Columbus drag queens Star Synovia and Chai Gemini, a current Ohio State student, moderated the event live from the Ohio Union.
The night featured a range of performances, from dancing and singing to comedy routines, with Synovia and Gemini even treating the audience to lip-syncing routines and matching emerald-green ensembles. All the while, Synovia and Gemini said they were able to relate to the students and cheer them on.
“I feel like I was lucky enough to find my tribe when I first started going here (Ohio State),” Gemini said. “That’s why I was able to do something such as drag because it’s like something I never would have done on my own. It was from the support of my friends and/or them urging me to do it because they know it’s something that I like.”
USG raffled off $20 digital gift cards to the event’s viewers based on attendance and TikTok entries. The performance selected as first place by the judges was a comedic video featuring light banter among friends during a car ride, submitted by Ose Arheghan, a third-year in political science and government.
“I think that it’s really important to have events for the LGBT community,” Arheghan said. “I was able to meet folks who I had not really met before on campus in a fun and casual setting.”
In all, the show only received five submissions. Despite this, Van Leuven said he hopes to incentivize students to participate in events like this in the future.
“I really want this to be like a good source of entertainment. And I want people to come out of it feeling like it was a good, like, safe space for like their queer identity,” Van Leuven said.