We met drag artist Homo Erectus on his short return to Georgia. He lives and studies in Germany, is a future biochemist, and came here for the holidays. It was precisely at this time that one of the queer bars reopened, where he had planned to perform a drag performance. There is a balcony around the dance floor, and in one corner there is a DJ’s equipment. He sat down there, took out his makeup, mirror, and clothes, and began to transform. He took a break to sip a drink and cool down, watching the people who were slowly gathering in the bar from above.

Later, while recording the interview, he told me that it was very emotional for him to return to Georgia and see the faces he missed again, who do not hold back from being kind, and to hold a performance where he grew up, where he had many good times, where he had so much fun. He also said that he didn’t even remember seeing so many people on Vashlovani before, and seeing it made him cry.

“Seeing this made me cry, because despite everything, there are so many of us, we stand so strong, we hold space. We are loud, brave and unyielding. There is strength here, there is love here, and you could say it’s a community. It’s an honor to come and have shows again, to be able to share the love I have for them with people and for them to welcome me with open arms – Homo Erectus, which has not faded, is still aflame and will always be so.”

He is now 24 years old, and has been doing drag for 6 years. As he recalls, he didn’t think much about choosing a name — he was studying when he read “Homo erectus” in a book, thought it was comical that the terms “homo” and “erection” coincided, and that’s how he came up with the name for his drag persona.

His creative self-expression, messages, and content that he tries to share with his audience through drag, have been influenced by fairy tales, Soviet and Disney animated films, 90s and 2000s cinema, fashion, and theater. He especially emphasizes the influence of oral stories and believes that the stories told about the experiences of previous generations opened up his imagination and helped him find his creative side.

As a child, he wanted to be inventive and was always interested in the answer to the question: “Why?” — “Why does the Earth spin, why does a cell divide, how does it happen that a person develops cancer, Alzheimer’s”. Since childhood, he thought a lot about death and was very sad that people come and go in this world, leaving no trace behind. As he told us, every day is a celebration of life for him.

He was always a fan of counterculture, annoyed by trends and had a desire to swim against the current. At the same time, he was open and sociable, studied well and at the same time had fun: “I was tall and they let me into clubs, I was lucky.”

It was precisely his curiosity and thoughts about life and the future that determined his choice of scientific activity as his professional goal — he first studied in Georgia and is now continuing to deepen his knowledge in Frankfurt, Germany.

He tells us that understanding sexuality, the process of self-determination, was not a story of fundamental importance. For him, the main thing was always to love the person you are in a relationship with and to feel good about yourself, whether it lasts for a second or hundreds of them.

“For me, a person is a walking history, a living story that I want to learn more about. People are like books that you want to read. A relationship is like a rollercoaster  — someone sits next to you, and you have to hold their hand and go on an adventure with them. I am not a fan of types in relationships, nor of specific reservations, as if one detail of the puzzle is missing, to which a person must fit exactly. It doesn’t happen like that, every person builds their own puzzle, and it’s better to build something new together.”

He says that he has never found exploring himself in terms of gender and sexuality very interesting — “There are a lot of interesting things happening in my life. I don’t care about pronouns, I remain me, no matter how others perceive me. The main thing is how I perceive myself. The main thing is to respect me, and if you don’t see that, that changes everything.”

He doesn’t pay attention to social norms, nor to the often-heard phrase about how men should behave, and he can’t understand who defined what manhood is. As he says, manhood for him is adherence to the principles he believes are right — that a person is not two-faced.

“Manhood, humanity, being humane is standing up for what you believe in and doing it for yourself so that you can sleep peacefully at night. When you look at yourself in the mirror, you don’t want to spit at it. Make decisions that you don’t regret. The main thing is to be right when making a decision, even if it seems wrong from a distance.”

“Drag Has Always Been in My Life”

“Drag has always been in my life. You know, we all have a TV and we all have an idea of ​​the theater. Drag is not something new. People my age, everyone, would sit with their parents and watch Comedy Show or other entertainment programs, laughing a lot,” — this is how he answers the question of when drag appeared in his life.

However, he wonders why it happens that when drag is on TV, a heterosexual, married man does it, wears a dress, wears a wig, and impersonates a woman, then everyone unites, but when queers try to bring a message to people through drag, it causes more resistance. According to him, queer drag is more aimed at promoting the experiences of queer people and women, giving them a platform, and respecting them, and this is considered a problem, but if a heterosexual man mocks women through drag, everyone likes it.

“In comedy, it’s acceptable to mock, and if we mock terrible men, we can mock terrible women, but people accept it when straight people do it for straight people. When we do it for queer people, not to mock, but to honor queer people and women, there’s a problem.”

He started doing drag by chance — Nia Gvatua [owner of Success] needed a “backup” dancer at Bassiani. He jokes that almost all drag queens of his generation were born like that — Nia Gvatua needed a “backup” dancer. He also remembers with gratitude Matt Shelley, thanks to whose recommendation he was able to perform at the Drag Ball. As he says, performing shows with drag artists of that period (some of whom are no longer in Georgia) helped him develop his own skills. The refinement of Georgian drag was also facilitated by the fact that in 2022-2023, the doors of several spaces opened simultaneously for artists.

“This was very important to us. The more work you have, the more you earn, and you can put more into your drag, refine it more, develop it. We started doing drag even better, we weren’t limited to dresses found in the trash and wigs found in “barakhlovka”. Although that method still works very well to this day. People started sewing, doing hair and makeup, doing experimental performances,” he says, recalling shows where the moon was hanging on chains or lying on a mattress and red liquid was poured over it to imitate blood, or even a bathtub full of hot water was on stage.

“We weren’t born in a vacuum either, and our next generation has raised the bar even higher. I am impressed by many of the young drag performers. Love and unity are essential to Georgian drag culture. For us, community is like a warm blanket that you can comfortably wrap yourself in.”

He recalls that moving to Frankfurt felt like being left in a void, as if he were completely alone. He says that the warmth was so intense here that he felt a sense of loss in another reality. He tells us that it is a separate, alien commune there and it is difficult to break through barriers. The relationships he has built over the years, the shared experiences, the people he has met in the underground, have made it easier for him to do drag. And to top it all off, there is a lack of time.

“Everyone thinks it’s very easy to do drag. Drag is the most difficult profession on the planet — you have to be a makeup artist, stylist, choreographer, conductor. You have to understand music, theater, stage, lighting. All of these, in general, are different professions. You also have to be an actor — this is number one, and if you want your show to not start and end with your small stage, you have to be a photographer and videographer to understand how it all looks in the frame. It’s very difficult for a person to combine all this. Being a tailor on top and sponsoring yourself — everything is spent from your own pocket, and if you don’t have it, you have to work hard to have it and then spend it. Drag is a very difficult profession and undervalued, because in these individual professions the salary is higher than that of a drag queen.”

“I Am Georgian and Wherever I Am, I Carry This Love in My Heart”

When he was leaving the country, he thought a lot and had many question marks about the meaning of leaving for him. Then he realized that we are all children of the world, and when the country does not have the resources to support you and accept you as you came into the world, you can find a place where you can do what you were born into this world for.

He is heartbroken that he does not receive the same feelings he feels for his homeland. He says that he has a problem with this government because it prevents him from finding his place in life, and if he finds that place, then he will have to forget about his homeland.

“When your homeland doesn’t love you back, it’s a toxic relationship and it can’t be like that. It breaks my heart that just as immigrant mothers leave and their children grow up feeling a lack of love, maybe I too need someone to support me.”

Homo Erectus tells us that in recent years, Georgian inspiration has become especially dear to him. In the summer, he attended the Frankfurt Pride and arrived there wearing a Georgian flag dress that he had sewn himself. He wanted to convey that — “I am here, I am Georgian, and wherever I am, I carry this love with my heart. I want more people to understand that Georgia exists and needs support, because whatever the situation is now, Georgia has no future.”

At the end of the conversation, he returned to oral tradition and said that drag queens draw inspiration from stories told not by kings, but by ordinary people who pass them down from generation to generation, preserve them, and take care of them — adding new things to old ones, and then the influence of cinema and literature will be added, and drag performers will preserve for the next generation the stories that the rulers want to hide.

Finally, he says that change doesn’t start with turning the world upside down all at once, but with small gestures — “It’s natural when people make each other feel good. We just all have to try to make each day better — not by turning the world upside down all at once, but by helping and comforting the person standing next to you, because we all need help and comfort.”