Wednesday 3 August 2022 08:10 PM Students at Manhattan private school are ambushed by drag queen performance ... trends now

Students at a Manhattan private school have revealed how they were forced to attend a drag queen performance earlier this year.

The pupils at Grace Church High School, an independent Episcopal school that costs $57,000 a year, were required to attend chapel on April 27 for the school's Sixth Annual Pride Chapel event. 

The event was sponsored by the school, the reverend as well as students and the faculty advisors for Spectrum, the school's LGBTQ club. 

This year, it featured a performance by Jesse Havea as the drag queen Brita Filter, who was filmed strutting down the aisles of the chapel in bright orange go-go boots and a high-hemmed blue babydoll dress.

'I literally went to church to teach the children today,' the performer captioned the TikTok video.

Havea then spoke with the students about drag and his pansexual identity, as students said they were forced to dance in the pews.

'There was tons of social pressure to dance along and pretend like it was normal for sure,' one unnamed student told The Post Millennial, 'whether it be people tapping on shoulders and telling them to stand up or just a collective staring contest at whoever wasn't totally participating.'

Another student said: 'Immediately upon entering, there was a person handing out stickers with Pride flags on them unironically saying "take one or you're homophobic."'

Students told The Post Millennial how Havea — as Brita Filter — entered the church through the back entrance following remarks by a chaplain and faculty members, one of whom introduced Havea as 'the queen of New York.'

The performer then strutted down the aisle as I Will Survive played, and the students were forced to clap along.

One student even said that as Havea approached the altar, he was joined by other dancing students, some of whom were twerking along with the music.

'I wondered, "Is this really happening in a chapel?"' the student asked.

Havea then went on to perform a rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, before sitting down with the school's Vocal Music Director Andrew Leonard 'to answer questions about drag representation and what pride month symbolizes,' according to the school website.

During the discussion, the Post Millennial reports, Havea discussed the importance of his Tongan and Polynesian ethnicity — and said he identifies as pansexual.

Throughout the discussion, one student said, 'this person consistently called themselves "fabulous" and "talented" and "beautiful," not just once or twice, but over and over this person reassured themselves that way." 

Students in the Spectrum club also 'shared their own stories and experiences of identity and belonging at Grace,' the school's website says, at which point The Post Millennial reports a teacher resigned over improper pronoun use.

The pupils recounted how math teacher Uyen Nguyen told the chapel 'how much they loved the gay kids at school, and how this has been the most inclusive and accepting place they've ever been.'

But Nguyen — who refers to themselves as The Gay Agender Teacher — said they cannot work

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