Davie village is known as the home of Vancouver’s LGBTQ+ community, filled with gay-friendly bars and clubs. The most iconic probably being The Junction, also known as the home of The Bratpack.
If you know anything about Canadian, or more specifically Vancouver’s, drag culture then you’ve heard of The Bratpack. The Bratpack is a drag trio consisting of Canada’s Drage Race season 2 contestants Kendall Gender, Gia Metric, and Synthia Kiss. But these queens have been working together long before Canada’s Drag Race was even a thing.
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The Bratpack started as a weekly, scripted, reality-like show, with five lively queens performing together: Jane Smokr, Valynne Vile, Shanda Leer, ThanksJem, Gia Metic & Kendall Gender. These queens put on a drama-filled show nearly every week, for years. Over the years, some queens left the group and new queens joined but The Bratpack always delivered an entertaining night, no matter what.
Although The Bratpack is arguably the most well known drag group in Vancouver, they most certainly were not the first.
The Orpheum Theatre was the first stage in Vancouver for drag queens, all the way back in 20s and 30s. The first famous drag queen to grace the stage was Julian Eltinge, but back then drag was known as cross-dressing, and it wasn’t yet synonymous with the LGBTQ community.
As the years went on, cross-dressing became seen more and more as characteristics of being gay, which was not decriminalized in Canada until 1969. Cross-dressing became taboo in society as people feared persecution. However, it did not just go away. Instead, an underground version of cross-dressing began rising in the LGBTQ community, known as drag. Performers were no longer allowed to grace the stages of larger venues and so they began performing secret shows at gay bars.
Through protests and time, homosexuality and drag were decriminalized and accepted by Canadian society. Now, everyone and their mothers watch RuPaul’s Drag Race and root for their favourite queens. And Vancouver is home to some of Canada’s biggest drag queens, who still keep the community thriving.