A glitzy private school in New York City has outraged students and parents by enacting a strict new dress code despite inviting a drag queen to perform at the school in a babydoll dress that violated regulations.
The East Village’s Grace Church School, a historic Episcopal private school founded in 1894, hasn’t enforced the dress code in recent years but recently emailed students urging students to start taking it seriously again.
Second graders at the school last Sunday received an email detailing what clothing would be considered inappropriate, including “tights worn as pants”, miniskirts, gym clothes, hats, tank tops and “pants worn underneath sitting at the waist”.
“If you would like to bring something to school to ask me if it’s okay, I’m happy to review your wardrobe choices without penalty or judgement,” the dean wrote in the memo.
Following the outrage, the school responded with another letter, saying the new rules were designed to “encourage a special sense of culture and community”.
The school’s $58,000-a-year demands sound hypocritical when last spring the school invited drag queen Brita Filter to its sixth annual Pride Chapel event and forced students to attend.
Grace Church School in New York City has felt the ire of teachers and students alike after enacting a new dress code that some say is archaic and oppressive
The school’s decision to implement it is hypocritical because it frequently invites scantily clad drag queens to perform at school-sponsored LGBTQ pride events
Brita, whose real name is Jesse Havea, was seen wearing a short, orange mini skirt, entering the school chapel and dancing up and down the aisle as students and teachers cheered.
The drag queen was a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 12 and posted a video of her performance at school on Tik Tok with the caption, “I literally went to church today to teach the kids. A Catholic high school here in NYC invited me to their Pride Chapel.’
“Visibility is important and I’m so honored to have had the opportunity to speak to you about my work as an LGBTQ+ drag queen activist,” the caption continued.
The actor said he would “never forget that beautiful moment” and belted out a rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.
A student who attended and wished to remain anonymous told Canadian magazine The Post Millennial that there was “a lot of social pressure” involved in the performance.
“There was a lot of social pressure to dance along and pretend it was certainly normal,” the student said.
“Whether it’s people patting them on the back and telling them to stand up, or just a collective staring competition at those who don’t fully participate,” they continued.
Another student said: “As soon as we walked in, a person was handing out stickers with Pride flags on them and said unironically, ‘Take one or you’re homophobic.’
One student even said that as Havea approached the altar, he was joined by other dance students, some of whom danced along to the music.
“I wondered, ‘Is this really happening in a chapel?’ the student asked.
The video posted online by drag queen Brita Filter shows her strutting down the aisles of Grace Church Chapel in bright orange go-go boots and a high-hemmed blue babydoll dress
She was at the private Episcopal School for their sixth annual Pride Chapel event on April 27th
The event was sponsored by the school, the Reverend, and students and faculty advisors from Spectrum, the school’s LGBTQ club
Havea has previously competed in RuPaul’s Drag Race and is the national co-chair of Drag Out the Vote
After the performance, students were encouraged to talk to Havea about their sexuality and gender identity, and one teacher quit during this time due to repeated mis-gender treatment by other faculty.
The students said teacher Uyen Nguyen allegedly told the chapel full of students “how much they loved the gay kids at school and that it was the most inclusive and accepting place they’ve ever been, but it’s the administration to be with.” which she cannot work”.
Nguyen had complained about the problem in the past, saying that colleagues who used the wrong pronouns were a “stressor” for them and that they would not be held accountable if they used the wrong pronouns.
On social media, Havea markets itself with the hashtag #AnythingButPure and plays with the Brita Filter name.
And on his Instagram and YouTube pages, he constantly alludes to various kinks and high-risk sexual practices, including “watersports,” “fisting,” “balls deep,” “turning out,” “glory hole,” and the phrase “1 in the pink, 2 in the stench.’
In a 2017 interview with Get Out Magazine, Havea said, “I love taking things that are very gentle, things that aren’t really supposed to be touched, and screwing them up. I really like doing that.”