How Manchester’s drag queens are fighting mental health taboos – Manchester Evening News

It was only a couple of months ago that drag artist Cherry Valentine first graced our screens as a contestant on BBC Three’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

While her time on the competition was cut short, they made a lasting impression on audiences and has garnered a whole legion of fans.

One thing that struck a chord with viewers was the self-proclaimed ‘flippy, gothic queen’’s history with mental health – something they briefly touched upon during the show.

Alongside her perfected drag and aesthetic, Cherry, who is originally from Darlington but now lives in Manchester, is also a fully-qualified mental health nurse.

During a panel discussion on mental health with drag artist Cheddar Gorgeous and NHS accountability officer Craig Harris for Manchester Pride’s 2021 Conference, the star said her career path was quite a journey from her early relationship with mental health.

“Growing up I didn’t know that mental health was a thing because I was taught that as a male of the family and in the community that I grew up in, that we shouldn’t talk about mental health and we should push our emotions down,” Cherry said.

Brought up in the travelling community, Cherry recalled an ‘often old-fashioned’ style of parenting.

“It was me who was expected to take over from my dad’s job and become a mechanic,” the drag artist added.

“What usually happened is that the women would get pulled out of school and become a housewife and all that stuff.

“It’s very old-fashioned, but I always wanted to do more – I just didn’t know what I wanted to do.”

At college, Cherry, real name George, started studying psychology alongside literature and sciences while also dabbling in the world of fashion and art – unbeknownst to the family – at the same time.

It was only after a tutor suggested a career in mental health that it really became a consideration.

“My experience with mental health growing up was very limited, the only time that I spoke with a mental health professional in my whole entire life before college was a counsellor at school and I just cried for the whole hour,” they said.

“But I’ve always been interested in people. I’m really fascinated about the human mind and how it works.”

Cheery’s parents suggested she become a psychologist when they learnt of the interest, but instead, Cherry decided to go to university to study mental health nursing.

At university Cherry discovered the world of drag and being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Since qualifying in 2015, Cherry has worked in psychiatric intensive care for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), worked with adults diagnosed with Huntington’s brain injury and had a number of community nursing positions.

All alongside building up a profile as one of Manchester’s emerging drag talents.

But, even when waltzing down the cobbles of the gay village, Cherry was still faced with the topic of mental health.

“When I went into the clubs and I was actually starting to wear drag and feel my fantasy, it was a whole different world to me,” Cherry explained.

“It really opened my eyes because not only are you in drag, you’re also a performer, an artist, and people sort of see you as a therapist as well.

“Even then, in drag, people would come up to me and tell me their whole life story.

“We’d be sat around for hours talking and they had no idea who I was but I think it’s because when you’re in drag, people see you as more approachable and are able to talk about that stuff.

“I am so open to that and I will happily sit down and talk to someone about mental health.”

As one of Manchester’s most prolific drag artists, it’s something that Cheddar Gorgeous has also experienced too.

“That’s quite often the role you play when you’re a spectacle,” Cheddar echoes.

“Sometimes people get very caught up in your stunning visual formats and that obviously feeds into the world of drag but I feel like drag in itself is the art of relationship and connection.

“It’s like an open door to everyone. It’s a way of using spectacle to create community and I love that.”

When the pandemic hit last year, Cherry was filming RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. As filming grounded to a halt, Cherry went back to nursing to help look after those with coronavirus.

Even now with the Drag Race platform behind her, Cherry is still nursing and currently working at vaccination centres.

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“Even with the vaccination centres, I’m going into therapy with some of the people who come in because they haven’t spoken to anyone in over a year and a half,” Cherry added.

Speaking as part of the Manchester Pride’s 2021 Conference event, NHS Officer Craig Harris said he was concerned about how the pandemic has affected the LGBTQ+ community.

“I think our community is one where I feel we thrive when we have human interaction and human connection,” Craig explains.

“It can be quite fireworks and quite a challenge at times but I think, because of the global pandemic, lots of people have retreated into their homes and their place of safety.

“I fear we might have really lost the ability to connect that much – it’s what makes us such a strong and colourful community.

“I’m worried how we’re going to emerge from this – I’m hoping we’re going to be like phoenixes and rise from the ashes and that there’s going to be a whole new revolution of our community that will come together.

“I think we’ve seen things at possibly one of its lowest, at least in my life time, and I want to do more to restore some sort of normality for everybody.”

Craig has been a qualified Mental Health Nurse for 19 years and has been an Accountable Officer across health and social care in Wigan since July 2019.

One of the things he is trying to do to ‘restore normality’ is to make people feel more comfortable in talking about their mental health.

“My partner runs a salon in Wigan and we have psychiatry training for all of our stylists and therapists to become mental health first aid trainers,” he explains.

“It’s so that they can be better equipped, especially post-pandemic, to be able to support people’s mental health and wellbeing.”

He hopes the pandemic will help bring the LGBT+ community closer together.

“I don’t think anyone expected what happened in the last year and I’m not sure anyone has truly understood the impact it’s had either,” Craig adds.

“While we could just reopen the village and the gay bars, if we’re really going to understand what’s beneath the surface and the impact this has had on people’s mental health then I think we’ve got to up the game.

“I think we’ve got to stand together to rebuild things and make it better for us all.

“We need to figure out how we’re going to make sure we support each other as a community.”

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