In this holiday monologue, Virginia Please recounts a personal story from her senior high school years in the Philippines. She describes being a queer teenager who gravitated toward other queer peers, plucked her eyebrows, and faced frequent bullying. Because teachers recognized her singing talent, she was invited to perform Mariah Carey’s "I'll Be There" at the school’s Christmas party. During the performance she switched between male, female, and falsetto registers, notably mimicking Trey Lawrence’s falsetto riff. The audience reacted with laughter and ridicule, perceiving her vocal fluidity and queer presentation as bizarre. Virginia describes the immediate shock, freezing on stage, and the broader sense of being othered for expressing gender‑nonconforming artistry. The narrative ends with a reflective tone about the impact of that experience on her understanding of queerness, performance, and resilience.
Chapters
Hi, my name is Virginia Please and happy holidays! And because it's the holidays, I have one story to tell you. Back when I was in high school, I was invited to sing at our Christmas party in the Philippines. And I was already very queer and I was, you know, plucking my eyebrows and I was hanging out with the queer kids as well. I didn't know I was queer though, I was just naturally gravitating towards people who were like me. We were bullied a lot and we were laughed at. And certainly I was being laughed at for plucking my eyebrows. But anyways, that's beside the point. They knew I was talented, I could sing. So they invited me to sing at the senior high school Christmas party. And I sang Mariah Carey's "I'll Be There." I'll be there. They were so surprised that I could do the male voice and as well as the female voice. And as well as the falsetto voice. And when it came to, remember, Trey Lawrence's part where he does falsetto like, "Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh." You know that part? When they heard me do that, they all laughed at me. And I almost immediately froze. And they were laughing at me like I was some weird human being. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. I was acting very queer. I was singing very queer, and I did voices that were— Hi, my name is Virginia Please, and happy holidays! And because it's the holidays, I have one story to tell you. Back when I was high school, I was invited to sing at our Christmas party in the Philippines, and I was already very queer, and I was, you know, plucking my eyebrows, and I was hanging out with the queer kids as well. I didn't know I was queer though. I was just naturally gravitating towards people who were like me. We were bullied a lot, and we were laughed at, and certainly I was being laughed at for plucking my eyebrows. But anyways, that's beside the point. They knew I was talented, I could sing, so they invited me to sing at the senior high school Christmas party, and I sang Mariah Carey's "I'll Be There." I'll be there. They were so surprised that I could do the male voice and as well as the female voice and as well as the falsetto voice. And when it came to, remember, Trey Lawrence's part where he does falsetto like, ooh, ooh, ooh, you know that part? When they heard me do that, they all laughed at me. And I almost immediately froze and they were laughing at me like I was some weird human being. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. I was acting very queer. I was singing very queer and I did voices that
