A large crowd of onlookers and contestants gathered on the Spine on Thursday night with the promise of a “performative lesbian” competition.

Hosted by SHADES, the competition sought to find the most performative lesbian on campus by dividing competitors into categories and gauging audience opinion on their adherence to different LGBTQ+ stereotypes. The crowd was incredibly enthusiastic during the interactive competition and its satirical nature made for a night of laughs and carabiner-clad contestants.

SHADES is an organization created for LGBTQ+ students of color on Binghamton University’s campus, holding events focused on education and community building. Giana Aguirre, activities director at SHADES and a sophomore majoring in social work, emcee’d the competition. She took to the microphone, directing the crowd to form a circle for contestants to introduce themselves. With a large turnout of women, attendees were dressed in anything from jorts to dresses, carrying guitars, skateboards and pride flags.

Aguirre and other SHADES members created the event to represent Lesbian Visibility Week and cater to their community of queer people of color on campus. She described the traits of a typical performative lesbian.

“Obviously, you have your stereotypes of the carabiner, the mullet, the undercut, the Jesus sandals,” Aguirre said. “But I think that ultimately, what it means to be a performative lesbian is just to express yourself in a way that feels like it makes you valid. So, of course, in this event, people were playing to the stereotypes, and you know what, lesbians do U-Haul, lesbians do wear carabiners, lesbians do get mullets. But at the end of the day, what it means to be a performative lesbian is to express yourself in a way that feels true to who you are.”

Aguirre served as an energetic and hilarious host, creating a welcoming energy for the audience.

Contestants divided themselves into four categories. Masc lesbians comprised the largest group in the contest, while femme lesbians presented in more feminine clothing and accessories. Stems, on the other hand, embodied a blend of both of these traits. The miscellaneous category accounted for those who did not identify with the other groups.

Each contestant entered the circle, showcasing their outfit and accessories while giving a quick one-minute introduction. Many sipped on matcha, wore wired headphones and had comically large carabiners filled with scissors and Labubus. The first contestant even serenaded the crowd with an acoustic version of Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” as the audience sang along and brandished cellphone flashlights, concert-style.

“I loved creating a community for lesbians, I feel like oftentimes lesbians kinda go under the radar, they’re not really talked about,” Aguirre said. “I feel like in the LGBTQ community, they’re just kinda there sometimes, is how it feels, but what I really loved about the event is that we brought lesbians of Binghamton together, of all types.”

The traits of a performative lesbian varied across categories. The femmes wore colorful tights and cottagecore attire while the stems proudly displayed queer female poets and CDs from musicians like Fiona Apple. The masc lesbian category sparked a pushup competition, as contestants wore baseball caps and preached their love for women.

Each category was eventually narrowed down, with mascs having four contestants and the rest having two advancing in the competition. Aislynn Mendez, a junior majoring in political science, competed in the masc category and shared her opinion of what she believed made her the most performative lesbian.

“I was wearing all rainbow, of course, my shirt says ‘Eat pussy, it’s organic,’” Mendez said. “You know, there just needs to be more eating pussy, I feel like this generation does not eat pussy enough. And yeah, I care about women so much, that’s why I’m the most performative.”

As the competition became more selective, SHADES judges crowded behind a copy of Angela Davis’s “Women, Race and Class” to deliberate.

To pass the time, some contestants did pushups while others set up fake picnics to demonstrate their performative prowess. Another contestant, Alessandra Dealbuquerque, a sophomore double-majoring in economics and psychology, described her experience after an unfortunate elimination from the masc category.

“I have been a lesbian all my life, so you know I’ve been doing this for a while,” Dealbuquerque said. “I feel like I’ve embodied multiple different lesbian forms, fem, masc, in my life, so I had to encompass performative here.”

“I have my skateboard, I have my sunglasses, I have my bleached eyebrows, I have my smiley, I have my flannel, I have my carabiner, I have my checkered Vans and I have my Clairo waterbottle,” she continued.

Eventually, the winner was crowned as the ultimate performative lesbian. The contestant brought their cat with them, winning the hearts of the crowd. They were adorned with a paper crown placed on top of their bandana.

Though only one performative lesbian could win the prize, a strap-on dildo, many contestants shared their phone numbers over the microphone and continued to make the most out of the gathering. The energy, laughs and vibrant personalities of contestants made the performative lesbian contest an iconic display of Binghamton’s LGBTQ+ community.

“Since it’s Lesbian Visibility Week, I just wanted to show out,” Mendez said. “I feel like sometimes it’s hard to wear rainbows and stuff, and my shirt currently. It just felt like a safe space to actually be myself fully.”