Danny Beard on LGBTQ+ rights: ‘There’s still a fight to be fought’
They were crowned winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2022 and came runner-up in last year’s Celebrity Big Brother. As they prepare to headline Dundee Pride, Danny Beard talks to Lucy Ribchester about the importance of queer communities and being recognised in B&M
It doesn’t take long for a conversation with Danny Beard to become derailed. First there’s the matter of their gorgeous glasses (£40 from Firmoo: they own around 30 pairs). Then Izzy the Lhasa Apso makes an appearance on the Zoom call (Fanny the hairless chihuahua remains upstairs ‘under the covers’). Half an hour with Beard makes you feel like you have a new bestie, who is just a little bit (well, significantly) cooler than you in a variety of ways.
Beard is headlining Dundee Pride this year but can’t actually remember whether they have been to the city before (surely the sign of an excellent Dundee night out). ‘I feel like I've done a club event there,’ they say. ‘I remember it because Ellie Diamond from Drag Race is from there.’ It’s a coup for the city to have pulled such a starry name. After winning the fourth series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Beard’s profile has risen exponentially, culminating in coming second on Celebrity Big Brother last year.
A ‘super special project’ will be announced soon (about which they are remaining tight-lipped) and they’ve had to cope with being recognised in B&M while browsing the cleaning products. Their look has evolved too, progressing through a more mainstream ‘super femme’ stage before pulling back closer to the Club Kids aesthetic with which they won Drag Race. ‘Madonna has had 100 million different faces and looks and eras,’ they say. ‘Any artist, whatever your art is, goes on a journey and your style changes and evolves.’
Beard has also witnessed the hot-and-cold trajectory of the mainstream’s relationship with LGBTQ+ culture. ‘It’s not like it was ten years ago in drag; we’re almost on the other side of a drag boom,’ they say. ‘It’s hard to shift tickets and it’s hard to get people out.’ With this in mind, appearances at Pride events such as Dundee remain special for Beard. ‘More important to me than making a paycheck is being able to be part of an event, and especially Pride ones. It’s often lots of young LGBTQ+ people’s first experience of going to an event where they are safe and seen and happy and proud. I’m proud to be part of that.’
The rainbow-printed wave of mainstream support for queer communities may have waned, but more worrying, Beard says, is the continuing toxicity of public debate surrounding LGBTQ+ lives. ‘The truth is there’s still a fight to be fought, and weirdly we’re seeing lots of gay people align themselves with majorly right-wing parties. We’re seeing famous Scottish writers really attack our community. Realistically, minorities are people that just want to piss in peace and just want to live their lives and not be bothered, and it feels like queer people’s lives (and I use that term broadly about the whole LGBTQ+ spectrum) are always up for a debate; or we’re the ones they bring in when they need an enemy. And the truth is gay people, queer people, trans people, bi people, pan people: we’re not the enemy. We are a massive part of this world and society.’
In this sense, drag (an intersection of many creative forms: dance, music, comedy, visual art, MC-ing) can become both a salve and a form of activism. ‘Honey, we’re going to make a good show in Dundee,’ Beard says, ‘And we’re gonna try and forget that for five minutes and live our lives and have a good time.’ What can we expect from that show? Beard laughs. ‘Chaos, with a capital K... I’m dyslexic.’
Danny Beard tours until Monday 31 August.