Boscoe gay bar columbus ohio
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His parents divorced when he was 8, but “I spent a lot of time with my dad when I was growing up. Originally from Gratis, a tiny village in Preble County just east of the Ohio-Indiana border, Wyatt is the only son of Lisa and Russ Spreckelmeier. (While in drag, Kari prefers she/her pronouns.) It was a warm May evening, and Kari O’Knife’s last performance before a pageant the next evening, when she would pass along her tiara to the next Miss Southbend Tavern Newcomer.
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But for every star-studded event at Axis or District West, there are aspiring queens refining their looks and sharpening their moves in smaller venues: Boscoe’s, Cavan Irish Pub or Southbend Tavern, a charmingly dive-y Merion Village gay bar where Wyatt Spreckelmeier answered questions while applying his makeup in a cramped dressing room with two other drag queens. Corporate America has joined the fun, with Cardinal Health sponsoring a “Drinks and Drag” fundraiser earlier this summer for Opera Columbus.ĭrag shows at the most popular venues regularly feature Drag Race talent and sell out their seats. Nina West, queen of Columbus’ queens and a former Drag Race contestant, sold out four consecutive nights at the Columbus Zoo in July. The shows still draw some outrage from social conservatives ( Columbus schools canceled a “drag queen story hour” event last year after school employees suffered social media harassment), but the popularity of RuPaul’s Drag Race has knocked down most barriers that once kept drag confined to late night shows in gay bars. If you’ve been floating in the quiet backwater of cultural currents, you may not know that drag has become close-to-mainstream entertainment in America and hugely popular in Columbus. “He can be a stubborn little shit, but if you want to say anything bad about my son, you’re going to have to fight me,” Russ says from his Diamond S Horse Co. Earp, Russ’ favorite gunslinger-says his father “has issues, maybe lacks judgment, but there’s never been a moment when he did not support me, unconditionally, which not a lot of people can say, especially when you’re gay and come from a small town in Ohio.” And even though both bear the scars of bad decisions and stubbornness, they share a mutual admiration for one another and the work they do in the spotlight. They share a zeal for flamboyant entertaining, for being the center of attention. Both men acknowledge past struggles, but the two share more than DNA and a last name. You might be excused for assuming, in these days of divisive culture wars and convenient stereotypes amplified by social media, that this father-son relationship fractured long ago, but you’d be wrong. Wyatt, a gay former hair stylist who now works in a Columbus bank, becomes Kari O’Knife, dancing gymnastically across Southbend’s small stage while lip-synching to Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman.” Marine and fervent supporter of former President Donald Trump, launches the evening with a prayer, a circle of rodeo cowboys kneeling in the dirt around him. Russ, a former bucking horse rodeo champion, U.S.
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As the lights go up on the rodeo arena and dive bar dance floor, both Spreckelmeiers begin their performances.