- “Drag-N-Tag,” a yearly event, brings drag to the seas for LGBTQ+ youth and shark conservation.
- The event also boosts visibility for people of color who want to go into marine sciences.
- Its over-the-top presentation of science has drawn in donors for the third year in a row.
A marine research center in Florida just completed its third annual shark tagging hosted by Miss Toto, the drag “queen of shark research.”
The “Drag-N-Tag” fundraiser earlier this month event tackled multiple issues at once, and married Miss Toto’s two passions: drag and marine biology.
The actual tagging allowed Miami’s Field School to collect a variety of data about sharks that can be used to impact research and policy change, such as location and migration patterns, population sizes, and mating or breeding spots.
The work was important enough on its own. But having drag entertainers on board the tagging boats is radical in Florida, where drag performances are at best marginalized, and at worst targeted by Governor Ron DeSantis’s anti-gay laws.
Miss Toto thought of “Drag-N-Tag” with Jake Jerome, assistant director of program development at Field School, after she got her master’s degree in marine science.
Now, a group of drag queens, citizen scientists, and donors make a yearly trip to learn more about sharks and their protection in a spectacularly over-the-top fashion. That’s one of Miss Toto’s favorite parts of the event.
“Seeing these drag entertainers grab a hunk of barracuda to put on a hook is always so dramatic — or to see the look on their face when they actually get to tag the shark, or touch the shark, or even see a shark for the first time,” Miss Toto said. “We see sharks all the time on TV or in pictures, but seeing someone’s reaction to them witnessing what a shark looks like in real life, whether it be in the water, or when we actually get to work it up, is really special.”
Money raised from the event benefits Pridelines, a youth LGBTQ+ organization based in Miami.
To Miss Toto, the event’s meaning is even more expansive. It’s essential for underrepresented groups looking for themselves in marine biology, she said.
“As a person of color, even starting into marine science, I was like, ‘I don’t see anyone who really looks like me,'” Miss Toto said. “[The event is] really important as far as not only fundraising, but as a visual representation of the different minorities that exist in marine science — to get people to change their mindset about it and realize that marine science and STEM is accessible for everybody.”
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