Strutting around the second floor of Irish Bred Pub in high heels and a skin-tight cocktail dress, one of the night’s entertainers sips from a straw in a plastic cup etched with a beer logo waiting to take the stage.
After maneuvering through the growing crowd with ease, the entertainer finally makes it to the door. Stepping outside into the crisp evening air and pulling out a cigarette to take a few drags before flicking it away, the performer hears the music and crowd growing louder inside — it’s time to start the show.
Tim Peacock, 30, started performing in drag during his time in the military when he was stationed in Fort Benning, Georgia. One of his best friends introduced him to the world of drag after he found himself having a difficult time fitting in with the other members of his platoon.
“Being in the military kind of put me in a dark place — having to hide myself to avoid harassment and bullying,” Peacock said. “It had just brought me to an extremely dark place.”
Going into the military was to join the unofficial family business and a way to leave his small town outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was stationed across the U.S. and deployed in Iraq for a year.
Gaining acceptance during his four years of service was difficult as a gay man in the military. Peacock found himself on the wrong end of jokes, but his platoon members ensured that only they could make fun of him. Still, this made Peacock feel like an outsider to the group.
“It’s an awful feeling to fight for other people’s rights in this country that I don’t get to have,” Peacock said. “At the point that I was in the military, gay marriage wasn’t legal, and it was very hard to get up and go to work every day knowing that.”
Peacock found himself struggling with few friends that knew the true him. That’s when Imberli Vontrell came along.
Vontrell was the person Peacock became to get away from the politics of the military. She was, and has been for the last 10 years, a way for Peacock to express himself and get involved with the gay community.
“I needed a way to be able to hang out with the gay community by also keeping myself hidden and secret from other military folks because they would come out to the gay bars all the time,” Vontrell said. “Doing drag kind of opened my eyes and head. It helped me in so many ways. I’ve always said that drag saved my life.”
Vontrell first performed at a bar in Columbus, Georgia. While visiting the bar one night, Tim Peacock met his now-husband Chad Peacock.
Chad Peacock was enthralled with Tim Peacock but became skeptical when he first saw Vontrell performing, thinking he did not want to date a drag queen. Those thoughts, however, soon passed.
“He [Tim] has pretty much helped me become the person I am,” Chad Peacock said. “Just because of his confidence of who he is and how proud he is to be himself, it inspired me to come out to my family and friends.”
Chad and Tim Peacock grew together, and have been together for 10 years and married for three of them.
Chad Peacock now manages the bookings for Vontrell’s drag performance group ROYGBIV. They also work together with Pride on the Plains, in which Chad serves as the president to promote the LGBTQ community in Auburn and Opelika.
“When it comes to ROYGBIV, it’s very much back to that team thing,” Chad Peacock said. “I always tell people I’m just the booking director, he’s the show director … I value his opinion, his input more than anything, then I make moves from there. Pride on the Plains is kind of the opposite.”
Pride on the Plains often puts on drag events for the community such as their drag brunches, which Vontrell said is one of her most favorite performances.
“One of my favorite moments of doing drag was doing drag brunch at Zazu’s,” Vontrell said. “It allows all ages to be able to come to the show. It was great to meet the younger LGBTQ community that can’t necessarily make it out to the bar.”
Once Peacock completed his service in the military, he moved to Auburn to be closer to Chad Peacock and became a hairdresser. One night while he was out with friends, a waiter recognized him as a Vontrell and suggested starting a drag show in Auburn.
The drag performance group ROYGBIV began with just Vontrell and one other performer. They would perform once a week at a local bar, each putting on multiple numbers.
Since then the group has grown to include eight members that rotate weekly at the Irish Bred Pub in Opelika.
Vontrell has kept her and Tim’s lives separate though they do overlap.
“Especially since I do work in the beauty field, I do get to meet a lot of future and potential clients while I am out doing drag,” Peacock said. “Especially when clients see the product that I put out on me with styling my own wigs and doing my own makeup.”
Vontrell also competes in drag pageants. She began competing because they are a way, especially in the South, to climb up the drag ladder, Vontrell said.
She currently holds two titles, Miss Caritas and Miss Druid City Pride, but has held four throughout her career. During her pageant tenure, she has found herself constantly learning more about drag.
The pageants take a lot of work, time and money. They have also given her opportunities she never would have had.
“My favorite [performing] moment was being able to perform at Hamburger Mary’s,” Vontrell said. “That is a huge milestone or stepping stone in the drag community. Being able to perform at such a prestigious location, which is in Daytona, that was one of my favorite moments.”
Pageants have also afforded Vontrell the opportunity to work with other drag queens.
Vontrell has mentored Colana Bleu, also a member of ROYGBIV, through several pageants, helping her to win the title of Miss ROYGBIV.
“It’s amazing [to perform with Vontrell,]” Bleu said. “She pushes you to do better because she’s such a good queen. When you’re a drag queen you don’t want to live up to and do everything that everyone else is doing. But you want to be on par and on her level, and she’s the best drag queen we have in Auburn.”
It’s not uncommon for Vontrell to hear comments like this. It’s one of her favorite parts of performing when she gets to talk to audience members after a performance, and they are in awe of her skills.
It’s one of her favorite parts of performing, getting to hear the crowd react when she performs tough skills like death drops. But the best part of performing is the self-confidence it gives her.
“I always say doing drag gives me the boost of self-confidence I don’t necessarily have as Tim,” she said. “Just hiding behind the makeup and wig, you’re able to get away with anything doing drag.”
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Elizabeth, senior in journalism and political science, is the community editor for The Plainsman
