In his cap backwards, long Bermuda pants, sneakers, Karl Sanchez opted to travel to southern India, in a rural region of Kerala, rarely visited by tourists.

The thirties merged with the audience. However, he was more used to being treated like a star.
Because you have to imagine it: dressing up, wearing a very beautiful dress and perched on high heels.
Karl Sanchez is Nicky Doll, famous Drag queen, presenter of Drag Race France which is broadcast on France Télévisions.

Here she is currently presenting a new program at France 5, the aim of which is to meet with figures from the LGBTQ+ community to understand how gender issues are being handled in different countries.

First destination, India. Although traditional culture incorporates gender fluidity, the arrival of the British in the 18th century changed the situation, as Maya, a transvestite from India, puts it. Queen Victoria, through article 377, specifically criminalized homosexual relations. This article will only be revoked in 2018!

Non-binary cider

Now the situation is mixed.
Gender fluidity has endured through traditions such as kathakali, small theaters where women’s roles are played by men with heavy makeup as in drag art.
Karl Sanchez also discovered a huge party in Tiruchendur where men wore the skin of the goddess Kali in padded bras!

But cider also stands in the way of binary. This traditional dress is worn by both men and women, only the way it is worn changes.

But tolerance has limits…
Nicky Doll met, among others, with Grace Banu, India’s first trans engineer who created a village for discriminated trans people, who are not even “considered human”, she says.

This magazine, like the Drag Race show, has a trump card. This sparks a constructive and respectful debate because the aim is clear: to better understand the other person.
This is not a community program. But a travel program that has social value.

Sometimes it takes a few extra minutes to delve into a question, but these 52 minutes give us an original and intelligent journey. Accompanied by dreamlike scenes: Nicky Doll and Maya, in transvestites, on the bow of a traditional wooden boat, singing in a playback, excerpts from Léo Delibes opera “Le duo des fleurs”…

“ Nicky’s trip », Tonight at 21.00 in France 5 with two episodes. The second happened in Greece.