‘Certified f***s’: Sussex DragSoc event interrupted by homophobic ‘Zoom-bombers’

The University of Sussex’s DragSoc hosted their annual Halloween event last night on Zoom, titled DragSoc me to Hell. The event promised “an evening of spooky sensations and insane performances” with shows from the resident Drag Kings and Queens as well as open mic spots.

However, mid-performance, a number of unknown Zoom accounts joined the meeting and began to insult the members using homophobic and transphobic slurs, including calling performers “certified f***s”.

DragSoc spoke exclusively to The Sussex Tab, explaining that the meeting link was public in order to “make it easier for friends outside the uni to join and share our love for Drag.” But this allowed unknown accounts to join and hurl abuse at DragSoc members.

“It started off with just two accounts,” the President of DragSoc said, “who seemed to overstep the boundaries and were being mildly rude/inappropriate, making sexualised comments about one of our performers.

Most Read

Gone but not forgotten: Honouring the 13 Glee cast members who have passed away

Monster’s lead star explains why Aileen Wuornos was clumsily shoved into Lizzie Borden show

40 years later, one of the Unsolved Mysteries cold cases has just been solved

“They were immediately removed and blocked from the call, thinking that this would be the end of it. A reminder was then made about the rules of respect and muting mics and anyone not following these rules would be removed.

“Then a large number of accounts suddenly joined, boo-ing a performer, making sexualised and homophobic comments about the performers … the ‘bombers’ filled the chat with comments, demanding to be unmuted and using slurs.

“Everyone in the Zoom call was shocked and shaken up. To be seeing this sort of behaviour in 2020 was disgusting. I hope this acts as a reminder that homophobia and transphobia are still a massive issue, and that this behaviour will not be tolerated.”

DragSoc went on to say: “We will continue to create online content and want to encourage people to join us in celebrating Drag in all its wonderful forms. We will be making changes to prevent anything like this from happening again and are working with the SU to ensure safety.”