The Tribune | Weekend | 13
Friday, July 17, 2020
celebrity
A new star on the rise Bahamian drag queen withstands backlash in pursuit of success
ANASTARZIA Anaquway (Photo/ Canada’s Drag Race/Bell Media)
By CARA HUNT Tribune Features Writer cbrennen@tribunemedia.net
B
ahamian drag queen and asylum recipient Anastarzia Anaquway has survived the first two episodes of the Canadian reality show “Canada’s Drag Race”. He has also survived discrimination, death threats and multiple gun shots wounds. But Anastarzia, whose real name is Jermaine Aranha, has proved resilient. The show he is now competing on was inspired by the immensely popular “RuPaul’s Drag Race”. It follows a group of drag queens as they compete for a grand prize of $100,000, a year of hotel stays courtesy of the Hilton brand, and the title of Canada’s First Drag Superstar. Jermaine Aranha, 37, who currently lives in East York, Toronto, picked his stage name because it’s a mix of name Anastasia (stylised with a Z) and the word star. In an interview for the show, he said: “I came into this with a very competitive nature because that is what I do. I am a pageant queen, I’m always competing. Sewing challenges, design challenges... that’s what I’m here for.
“After ‘Canada’s Drag Race’, oh baby, we’re celebrities now, we are international. This is major.” “Having the ability to sew puts you at an advantage. My garments are fitted to a T. You know your body and you know how you want to look. My greatest asset is the fact that I am a self-sufficient queen.” He added that what he loves most about the art of female impersonation is that at the end of the night “I get to take all this off and go back to being Jermaine.” Anastarzia is the reigning Miss Black Continental and says from here on out the only way is up. “After ‘Canada’s Drag Race’, oh baby, we’re celebrities now, we are
international. This is major,” he said. Jermaine is no stranger to the stage and has been doing drag for the past 17 years. He has won more than 15 pageants, including Miss Canada International, Miss Gay Toronto, and he is the reigning Miss Black Continental at Large. “Most times I see pretty drag, and that’s all we aspire to be. Pretty drags. And then you come to Canada and you meet the bearded queens. You meet the club kids. You meet the showgirls. You meet the fish queens. You meet the hairy queens. And now
in this competition, we have a drag clown. And, so Canada is sooooo interesting!” Jermaine moved to Canada to seek asylum because of the harassment he said homosexuals and drag queens experience here in the Bahamas. He claimed many of his friends were murdered as they left their homes and he himself was shot in the left arm, chest, and right kidney by two men standing in his driveway. Jermaine said he drove himself to the hospital and doctors doubted he would make it through the night. After recovering from that ordeal, he claimed asylum in Canada. “Being on Drag Race is the culmination of an amazing 17-year career,” he said. “It allows me to represent all the little black boys and girls in Third World countries like the Bahamas that have huge dreams but no resources to make them a reality.”
