A sexualized striptease performance featuring a dancer dressed as a nun was one of the acts at a Dartmouth College drag show.
The three-minute dance began with the fake nun — who goes by the pronoun “they” and uses the stage name “Grim Noir” — kneeling, then gyrating on a chair, and then stripping to reveal tights with crosses on them and pasties covering the fake nun’s nipples.
Performed to the song “Sinners,” the dance concluded with the performer touching their breasts and swinging a rosary around in the air before ending in genuflection.
It was part of an hour-long show that attracted more than 100 students to Collis Common Ground, located in the center of the Darmouth College campus. It was put on by House of Lewan, the college’s “first recognized drag club,” which receives funding from Dartmouth College.
House of Lewan offers “free, all-inclusive drag workshops,” says the campus student newspaper, The Dartmouth.
While Dartmouth may fund drag shows, it is less enthusiastic about conservative expression. It canceled an in-person Andy Ngo event, forcing it online, citing supposed “safety concerns.”
On January 20, 2022, Dartmouth’s College Republicans, Turning Point USA, and Network of Enlightened Women chapters planned to host an event with conservative journalist Andy Ngo. Dartmouth’s administration unilaterally canceled the in-person event, citing “information” from local law enforcement, and required the event be conducted online. No protesters appeared. FIRE wrote to Dartmouth on January 26, asking for clarification about what specific threats or security risks precipitated the decision.
Dartmouth claimed that student safety concerns informed by law enforcement forced it to cancel the event, but FIRE’s open record requests to the local Hanover Police Department revealed that the university’s administration unilaterally moved the event online, despite no evidence of any serious threats to disrupt campus. Dartmouth then imposed $3,600 on the College Republicans for the security the university hired for the event. FIRE wrote again to Dartmouth in April explaining how it may not financially burden student groups for holding expressive events.