Two Sydney drag queens were involved in a heated verbal exchange at an industry awards night last Monday. During her acceptance speech for Sydney’s Favourite Drag Artist, winner Cassandra The Queen called fellow drag artist Tora Hymen “old”, a “has-been”, and a “bitch”, while also referencing the challenges she faces as a person of colour. The tension had been brewing since the day before, when Hymen publicly questioned Cassandra’s campaigning methods for the publicly-voted award. During the speech, Hymen repeatedly told Cassandra to “shut up” – a response she later told Gay Sydney News she regretted. The altercation led organisers and attendees to intervene, and in the aftermath, one Oxford Street venue advised some of its performers to not speak publicly about the incident. Ben Grubb reports.
Drag queens Tora Hymen and Cassandra The Queen. Credit: Cassandra and Tora’s Instagram profiles
It was meant to be a night of celebration: Sydney’s drag community were gathering last Monday for the annual Drag Industry Variety Awards (DIVAs) to recognise and showcase local drag artists, venues, DJs, choreographers, costume designers and others within the local queer community.
Described by organisers as “the Oscars and Golden Globes for the drag industry”, it started off well enough. There was a well-received joke welcoming people “to the Universal staff party” (Universal Hotels owns most of Sydney’s queer venues); a surprise marriage proposal made during an award acceptance speech; and the induction of the iconic Minne Cooper into Sydney’s Hall of Fame for drag.
But as the night wore on and the alcohol flowed (albeit very slowly at one bar), tensions arose after the publicly-voted winner of Sydney’s Favourite Drag Artist was announced and began delivering a provocative speech.
As she approached the stage and accepted her award while 1978 classic Love Is In The Air played in the background, drag artist Cassandra The Queen was asked by the host of the night, drag queen Candy Box – the alter ego of Stonewall Hotel’s promotions and marketing manager Glenn Hansen – “How are you?”
“I’m all good,” Cassandra replied, though her tone was somewhat unconvincing, especially given what followed: an emotional speech where she held back tears while defending her win against online criticism. Much of this criticism had come from fellow drag queen Tora Hymen, who had questioned Cassandra’s campaigning efforts to secure the award.
If there ever really was any love in the air on the night, there was about to be little to none left in 10 seconds’ time.
To grasp what happened next – including Hymen telling Cassandra to “shut up”, which Hymen has since told Gay Sydney News she regrets saying and is sorry for, and Cassandra asking for her microphone to be turned up and for the audience to keep quiet – we need to rewind to the day before the awards night.
On Sunday, retired drag artist Tora Hymen, who began her drag career in 2002, accused another drag performer of soliciting votes for an award from overseas Facebook groups.
“Not once, in my time, with any of my 13 [DIVA Awards] when I was actually a working queen in true contention [for an award] … did I ever ask for votes…,” Hymen wrote on Instagram. “I didn’t need to and didn’t think it was good karma! I never needed to ‘beg’. Stay away from me on the night!”
Though Hymen didn’t explicitly name the queen in question, many in the local drag scene knew she was alluding to Cassandra, based on texts and screenshots circulating at the time.
Cassandra’s campaigning, including posts in international Facebook groups, sparked some debate but did not breach any rules set by the awards’ organisers. In fact, the DIVA Awards website did not list any restrictions on campaigning, nor did it say who was eligible to vote and if they had to be from a certain location. However, several queens Gay Sydney News spoke with expressed concern, stating that campaigning in overseas groups went against the spirit of the DIVAs, and called for changes moving forward.
The voting form – hosted on DIVA media partner Star Observer’s website – just required a name, a verified email address and a phone number before a vote could be cast.
While public voting was open for the award, Cassandra posted a message from her non-drag account on August 27 to the Facebook group “Drag Scene Stanposting“, which has almost 90,000 members.
Written in Filipino (Cassandra is Filipino) and translated into English for Gay Sydney News by a paid translator certified by Australia’s National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters, it read:
“Thank you in advance if you can have this posted:
Most pleasant day to everyone!
I am Cassandra, a sweet drag queen here in Sydney.
In case there are those in Australia or elsewhere interested, I would like to seek your support by voting for me in the Drag Industry Variety Awards.
Last year, I won as Sydney’s Favorite Showgirl so this year, I am hoping for the bigger award.
You may please vote here: tinyurl.com/DivaCass and select my name Cassandra the Queen.”
More than 260 accounts reacted to the post and 11 comments were posted below it. Three people who indicated in the comments that they had voted for Cassandra listed their locations on their profile as being in the Philippines, where the capital is Manila.
More than two weeks earlier, on August 2, Cassandra wrote a separate message in English on another Facebook group called Pinoy Drag Queens (which translates to Philippines or Filipino drag queens). The group has more than 13,500 members. It read:
“It’s the time of the year again for the public to vote for DIVA Awards. Every year, there’s a Drag Industry Variety Awards(DIVA) in Sydney recognising the talents of drag performers. Last year, I was awarded Sydney’s Favorite Showgirl. And this year, I am going for the same award and a few more. Now, I am asking for your support and vote for me. You can go to this link (https://tinyurl.com/DivaCass) and find Cassandra The Queen in any of the categories.”
Although Hymen expressed disapproval of this method of campaigning, at no point did the DIVA Awards disallow the activity.
Hymen stated on Instagram that it was her personal opinion that soliciting overseas votes showed “how little regard this individual has for their local drag community and the history … of the awards… let alone their ability to lean on the quality of their own work and win with the backing of our [local] community”.
Fast forward to Monday night, when Minnie Cooper had just finished speaking after being inducted into the Hall of Fame (by Hymen, no less) and Cassandra arrived on stage to deliver her acceptance speech as Sydney’s Favourite Drag Artist (her second DIVA win after securing the award last year when it was known by the title Sydney’s Favourite Showgirl).
“First of all, thank you so much to the DIVA Awards for taking out all the Manila votes,” Cassandra joked, before shifting to a more serious tone: “I stand here as Cassandra The Queen. But more than that, I stand here as 110 million Filipino people all over the world, including my Facebook groups.” (The DIVA Awards did indeed remove non-local votes using technical methods, we are told, but we’ll get to that later.)
She then took a pointed swipe at Hymen: “What I realised from the previous [Hall of Fame] segment is: regardless of how [many] DIVA [Awards] you have [won], you can still be shit at introducing people,” she said.
Misunderstanding what had just been said, Cooper, who was back sitting down in the audience by this point, yelled “What?”, to which Cassandra replied: “No, you did very well Minnie. I love you Minnie.”
But Cassandra wasn’t done with Hymen yet.
“Second thing, here is a young drag queen [Cassandra referencing herself] just trying to win a DIVA Award and get recognised .. [only to] get brought down by [an] old person who’s a has-been.”
Hymen, clocking that Cassandra was talking about her, stood up from her seat with her arms raised, theatrically acknowledging the insults. She then walked towards the stage, locking eyes with Cassandra before turning to face the crowd.
“Mind you, a person of colour being brought down by a white person,” continued Cassandra, as Hymen put her hands in the air again, gave the thumbs down, and then began posing, blowing kisses to the crowd and putting her hands on her hips while tilting her head upwards with her nose in the air.
As Cassandra’s speech continued, she expressed gratitude to those who reached out to “console me today” amid the online criticism, while also calling out “the bitch” who had “never apologised to me”.
She then urged people of colour to stand strong and unapologetic, saying, “Do your best, because this is what the DIVA Awards are [about celebrating]”.
“We all should campaign,” she continued. “If you didn’t campaign for this DIVA Awards, you should look at yourself, because this is what [the] DIVA Awards is. It is about extending your reach, it is about extending your capacity, and it is about extending your art and love for drag.
“And to all the POC [people of colour], especially to all the migrants who have come to this place, a white place that you have to insert your name in…”
There was then an abrupt pause due to heckling.
“Who said shut up, ” Cassandra asked as she looked out over the crowd. “Who said shut up?”
“Everyone,” an unknown crowd member yelled, as heard on a Facebook livestream.
Wollongong drag artist Ellawarra, who had just left her seat, then stepped in front of Hymen. Facing the audience and then Cassandra, Ellawarra clapped her hands above her head and blocked Hymen from the audience’s view (Ellawarra has previous beef with Hymen over an unrelated matter and was wearing a T-shirt with “Hi Men” inscribed on it, an apparent reference to Hymen). Drag queens Hollywould Star and Aunty Tamara also went to the front of the stage in support of Cassandra, as well as others.
But if things hadn’t already turned nasty, it was about to get much worse.
Hymen, shouting at Cassandra, said: “I said shut up, I said shut up.”
Host Candy Box: “No, no – we don’t say shut up.”
Hymen: “I say shut up”
Candy Box: “OK, Tora…”
Hymen, now pointing at Cassandra and yelling: “I say shut up. Don’t make this about race. I’ll say shut up. I’ll say shut up. I’ll say shut up.”
While Hymen’s theatrical response may have added to the tension, she later stated that she regrets her reaction and wishes she had remained seated (more on that later).
At this point, Candy Box asked Cassandra to take a step back from the front of the stage and said, “Let’s all share the love of drag tonight, whatever colour we are”.
Meanwhile, DIVA Awards board co-director Lex van Netten was seen talking to Hymen and attempting to bring one of her arms down from pointing at Cassandra while the other DIVA co-director, Sheila Bliege, put her arm around Hymen’s waist and gently guided her away from the front of the stage.
Cassandra then asked the audience to be quiet and requested her microphone be turned up. Fighting back tears, Cassandra finished her speech by saying: “To all the people who said ‘shut up’ and attacked me online today, I really hope that your drag is so much better than [mine]. Thank you so much.”
Cassandra’s speech was interpreted by many attendees Gay Sydney News spoke with as referring to racial tensions, although other attendees viewed it as Cassandra making a broader statement about the challenges faced by a person of colour who had been criticised.
Casandra herself later referred to “microaggressions” being at play, which, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, are comments or actions that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally express a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalised group (such as a racial minority).
“These microaggressions are the things that people of colour have to live with every day, and the industry has to understand that people of colour are always anxious because of these microaggressions,” Cassandra said.
In the days following the event, Hymen told Gay Sydney News she felt Cassandra’s speech implied she was racist for questioning Cassandra’s campaigning methods – a claim that Hymen strongly denies and one that remains unproven. Gay Sydney News does not allege Hymen is racist.
In the aftermath of the awards night, social media lit up with videos of the confrontation. Influencer Dom Skii, one of Cassandra’s friends and a popular online makeup artist, posted a video that gained almost 40,000 views. He suggested there were “undertones of racism” in the way Hymen acted – a claim Hymen also rejects.
On Tuesday last week, Cassandra declined a request from Gay Sydney News to answer questions about the night, instead saying she would like the focus to be on the night’s wins. But by Wednesday night she had given an interview to Harry Hadley of Gay Sydney Australia (not to be confused with Gay Sydney News), who also happens to work as a bartender at a venue where Cassandra regularly performs.
“My hope would be for everyone to learn from this,” Cassandra told Hadley.
Asked again on Friday whether she would speak to Gay Sydney News, Cassandra said she did not wish to make a further statement.
Since the confrontation at the awards night, Hymen has remained publicly silent. Until now.
‘I am truly sorry’: Hymen responds
In a lengthy emailed response to several questions, Hymen expressed regret for her reaction at the awards, admitted she was drunk, and acknowledged that her behaviour escalated the situation.
“I should have stayed in my seat with my mouth closed and smiling,” she said.
“Her [Cassandra’s] speech would have been the same, the aftermath probably would have been the same, but I could have been proud of my reaction in staying silent. … I didn’t need to add to [any crowd anger], or become the face of it. For that, I am truly sorry.
“I definitely reacted poorly… I should have … let her [Cassandra] get out what she needed to get out.”
However, Hymen said that her social media commentary in the lead-up to the night was solely about fairness in campaigning and had “nothing to do with anyone’s race”.
“Nothing I have ever posted or said has mentioned Cassandra’s background at all,” she said.
“I refused to scuttle away and hide … when I knew 100% this has nothing to do with race,” Hymen said, adding that “I have not lived Cassandra’s life or experienced the struggles she has… However, the implication that someone is acting from racism is extremely serious, damaging…”
She said her position was that awards like Sydney’s Favourite Drag Show and Sydney’s Favourite Drag Artist “should have voting limited as best as possible to people in Sydney who are able to witness that work, and not foreign groups of many tens of thousands possibly skewing the local results…
“…There has to be some line drawn and some measure and filter applied to best ensure those voting for an award are a part of the community that decides who is deserving of that award,” Hymen said.
“It’s a local awards night, not a global awards night. If you haven’t seen someone’s craft, how can you vote for it? … For some, just getting that trophy is enough, and it’s not actually about the work. For me, it’s a local drag awards, voted for by a community who see these drag artists and their craft, be it in our pubs and clubs, or when they represent us on global stages like Drag Race. The award is Sydney’s Favourite Drag [Artist], not Sydney’s and Manila’s, and London’s, and Stockholm’s, and Tokyo’s…”
Hymen’s statement also spoke of her and her friends and supporters being targeted with a barrage of abuse, along with “heavily edited clips” of her going viral “to support the whole ‘racist’ narrative”.
Voting system
Media publisher Star Observer, which hosted the public voting system on its website, revealed to Gay Sydney News that it understood non-Australian votes were removed by the DIVA Awards before they were counted and the winners finalised.
“Respondents were only able to vote once,” Star Observer publisher Lawrence Gibbons said. “Responses showed the time zone from which the vote was lodged and the DIVAs were given this information. As we understand it, they removed any votes from outside the Australian Eastern Standard Time time zone.
“The Star Observer had no involvement in the tallying of the votes. We simply captured the information and passed it on. Our involvement in the process was limited to this technological support.”
The DIVA Awards did not respond to questions about any other methods it used to remove overseas votes. However, two sources close to the DIVA Awards, who did not wish to be named because of the sensitivity of the discussions, told Gay Sydney News that IP addresses, which can indicate rough geolocation data, were also looked at in the process of excluding non-Australian votes.
The same sources said this process resulted in multiple overseas votes being excluded in the final tallying of votes – not only for the Favourite Drag Artist Award category but for others as well.
Even after these votes were taken out, Cassandra still won her award by about 40 votes, the sources said.
When nominees of award categories last year complained of similar online campaigning efforts to win publicly-voted-for categories, the DIVA Awards told Gay Sydney News: “The Diva Board has mechanisms in place to ensure a fair and equitable voting process. This goes beyond the postcode requirements”.
Back then, the Google-hosted voting form requested a voter’s self-declared postcode, seemingly as a way to verify their location.
Hymen said she accepted Cassandra was the legitimate winner of the award. “I would also like to say congratulations to Cassandra for her rightful win for Sydney’s Favourite Drag [Artist],” Hyment said.
“She won it fair and square without needing the votes that were removed … and she should be very proud of her achievement.”
Calls for reform
Retired showgirl Penny Clifford, a friend of Hymen, is a former DIVA Awards board member who helped found the organisation in 1991 and performed at the awards night last Monday. She said she had never seen anything at the awards like what she witnessed this year.
The closest thing that comes to the minds of other queens in the industry is the great upset of 2014 when Karen Kardashian collected her award for Sydney’s Favourite Drag Personality. Drag performer Penny Tration pretended to faint and fall off her chair when Kardashian was announced as the winner, and she continued lying on the floor as Kardashian gave her acceptance speech.
A year later, to the surprise of many, Kardashian won the award a second time. Again, Tration put herself on the floor, but this time she was joined by other drag queens.
“I’ve seen, over the years, [a lot of] bitching,” said Clifford, the former DIVA Awards board member. “I’ve seen snide comments on a microphone, [and] I’ve had queens not winning Entertainer of the Year come up and scream at me at the after party to the point where I’ve burst into tears and gone home…
“But I have never seen a winner get up and [give] her speech and be so ready to attack somebody,” she said of Cassandra’s speech, while also acknowledging Hymen’s online posts instigated the kerfuffle.
Despite this, Clifford said Hymen “was wrong” to approach the stage.
“I was kind of sad for [DIVA co-directors] Sheila and Lex, [who] had worked so hard [on the awards]. I was there during the day for rehearsals and I saw them running around, and I know what it’s like to put it together because I ran those awards myself for 10 years.
“It’s difficult to keep everyone happy and run it, and you don’t get paid, and then you get nothing but complaints afterwards,” she said, adding that participants were sometimes “mind-numbingly ungrateful” for the amount of effort that goes into putting it on each year.
Even before voting moved online, she said there was controversy in the early days of the competition when votes were cast on pieces of paper at Gilligans (which is now the Oxford Hotel) over the two Saturdays before the DIVA Awards.
Performers, Clifford said, would argue over the amount of time each of them would get on a microphone to ask the crowd to vote for them.
“No matter what you do, you’re always going to have that concept that someone could be favoured over you, even if it was just public voting, handwritten on a bit of paper, stuffed into a ballot box and counted by the committee like we used to do on the Sunday night before the DIVA Awards…”
Though unusual in the digital age, the idea of a return to in-person voting in venues has gained some support.
Said one drag queen who regularly works on Oxford Street but didn’t wish to be named: “I think the voting needs to go back into the venues. The venues are struggling to get by. Just look at Stonewall closing two nights a week. Ballots are a win-win situation [to get people back into the venues].”
Another said the current situation, without rules, had created a “Wild Wild West” environment for public voting. “To me, personally, winning a public vote doesn’t mean a lot,” they said.
DIVAs issues apology
On Friday, four days after the DIVAs, its co-directors Lex van Netten and Sheila Bliege issued a joint statement condemning all forms of bullying, racism, and discrimination; emphasising the importance of fostering respect and safety at their events; and defending not removing people from the awards night.
“Tolerating or ignoring any of those behaviours undermines the principles of respect and safety essential for any community gathering, especially at DIVA events,” the statement said.
Without naming her, they said that after a social media post by Hymen was brought to their attention, they deemed it “inappropriate and not in the spirit of DIVA”. As such, they said they contacted the author, requested they take it down, and that the request was agreed to (Hymen confirmed it was her who was asked to remove a post and that she took it down).
Additionally, the statement revealed, without naming her, that Cassandra The Queen had inquired with the DIVAs about not going to the event and seeing if she could transfer her ticket to someone else. DIVA Awards said it asked the individual to reconsider attending.
“Our aim was to de-escalate the situation, a challenging task but one that reflects our commitment to address issues when we become aware of them, rather than ignoring,” the DIVAs said.
During the ceremony, as tensions rose, the DIVA Awards said it chose to prioritise de-escalation rather than removing individuals, noting the complexities involved and “recognising that removing individuals could worsen the conflict”.
“It’s crucial to acknowledge the complexity of the situation, even amidst heightened tempers, with all parties involved contributing to the incident in their own way and no one side was entirely in the right.”
The DIVAs apologised to the more than 400 attendees affected and reiterated their commitment to promoting diversity, inclusion, and respect at future events.
They affirmed their dedication to addressing any future issues proactively, saying, “By taking a strong stance against harassment, DIVA aims to demonstrate our dedication to creating an environment where all participants can engage without fear of intimidation or abuse.”
As Sydney’s queer scene continues to grapple with the aftermath, Gay Sydney News has confirmed with two sources that Stonewall Hotel sent an email earlier last week directing some of its performers to not speak about the DIVA Awards incident on its microphones.
Asked to comment, Stonewall’s promotions and marketing manager Glenn Hansen (Candy Box) told Gay Sydney News: “No comment this is private and must not [be] reported at all.”
Meanwhile, another source said discussions are under way at another venue, which did not respond to requests for comment, to implement a “code of conduct” for entertainers, sparked by the DIVA incident.
Hymen, meanwhile, is ready to move on.
“What’s done is done now, I’ll own my part and take responsibility for that and process that internally but for me it’s now in the past,” she said. “I hope everyone else can now also move on and celebrate the winners, mend divisions and look forward to another fabulous year of Sydney drag.”
As the dust settles from the confrontation, Sydney’s drag community faces a moment of reflection on the future of its awards and whether rules might be required to temper any future tantrums.
With calls for reform and a code of conduct for performers potentially in the works, the incident has sparked wider discussions about fairness, respect, and the role of campaigning in the modern drag scene.
While both Cassandra and Hymen have expressed a desire to move forward, it remains to be seen how the community will navigate any future tensions in years to come.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to Penny Clifford in one paragraph where it should have been Penny Tration.
Gay Sydney News editor