Aroha Richards says whenever he is dressed in drag he's harassed by strangers on the street. Photo: RNZ / Katie Scotcher
Originally published 23 October 2018. Updated 12 March 2024 to change pronouns at the request of the interviewee.
A Wellington drag queen says he has been harassed by strangers so often that he's now too frightened to walk alone in the city.
Aroha Richards, who has been performing in drag since May, said strangers have stalked, verbally and sexually harassed him in that time.
In May this year, Bailey Fantham performed in drag - as Aroha Richards - for the first time.
It quickly became his passion.
"It's a totally freeing experience. It's being able to do all those things that when I was younger I was told not to do ... now I'm on stage and people are paying to come and see this, and they are supporting, and they are cheering you on and they want you to do more," he said.
Three months after he first stepped out in drag, the 20-year-old said a man stalked him while he was walking across Wellington city.
"I just got really cold all over and it was just this whole like 'oh my god, I might get hurt, doing something I love to do'," he said.
The man was following him for so long, and so closely, he was forced to call the police, he said.
The man was given a warning, and the police escorted Aroha home.
But he said whenever he is dressed in drag, he's harassed by strangers on the street.
"For some time I was hearing numbers. They were shouting numbers at me as if to offer me money for sex, people help themselves to your bodies," he said.
Steven Mawhinney owns the central city bar, IVY, which is a popular place for drag performers in the city.
Wellington is a fairly safe place for drag performers, he said.
"We have a number of performers who will finish their shows and go off down to the Courtenay Place end of town and don't receive any issues that I'm aware of.
"Unfortunately, we're always going to have people who are a little bit behind the times and backwards in their thinking and cause a lot of issues," he said.
Tracy Philips, the Rainbow Connections Diversity Liaison Officer for the Police, said drag queens were often targeted.
"They spend a lot of time on making up their faces to make themselves beautiful, and they are gorgeous, and they are a bit different - in a fabulous way, of course," she said.
A lot of work still needs to be done to gain the rainbow community's trust, so they feel confident to call the police if they're in danger, she said.
"We're not there by all means and we've still got some challenges. We've still got a lot of people with some very strong views, one way or another, so yeah, we've got a lot of work," she said.
Diversity liaison officers have been introduced across the country to work with the rainbow community, she said.
