In response to the NEA's characterization of her work as a lesbian genre, Hughes exclaimed, "Who knew it was a genre?"
Davis, in a ribald drag performance, went through an abbreviated history of her work.
At 6'6", Davis towered above the audience as she described her many performances--at several points characterizing herself jokingly as a "retarded whore."
For the second half of her act, Davis, who has a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University, went out into the audience to "pick lovers for the evening."
Davis's presence on campus has been a matter of controversy in the past.
Michael K. T. Tan '01, co-chair of the BGLTSA, said his organization had tried to secure funding from the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations to bring Davis to campus last year for an event called "Queers of Color."
Although funding was approved by the Foundation's student advisory committee, it was rejected by its faculty advisory board. Tan said he thought the rejection was probably motivated by homophobia.
"Cultural diversity isn't just about a food fair," added Anna M. Baldwin '01. "The basic feeling was that [the Foundation] thought this was just a bunch of sexual crap."