By Megan Hurt

A spotlight lit up center stage in the Cats Den as two performers came out. Dressed in white high heels, a curly blonde wig and a short skirt was Erik Bentley, a psychology freshman; the other performer, dressed in a white tank top and baggy jeans, was Melissa Gross, an arts administration and art history sophomore.

They danced around the stage and entertained the crowd by lip-syncing to “Toxic” by Britney Spears under the stage names of “Dolly Blueheels” and “Ben Dover.”

Their “Toxic” performance was the last of five acts by drag queens as part of GAYLA, held on Tuesday night. The GAYLA was an event to celebrate the second anniversary of OUTsource on UK’s campus.

“We were working on planning our second anniversary and we thought about a gala, and we thought, ‘GAY-la. Oh my God, that would be so much fun,’ ” said Cole Mitchell, an elementary education junior and member of the executive board of OUTsource.

OUTsource started two years ago when students, professors and members of the community started working on creating an organization on campus to represent the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered students at UK.

The event also acted as a fundraiser with a silent art auction to help benefit the organization.

“OUTsource doesn’t have professional staff or school funding. Everything in OUTsource is donated money,” said Ryan Murrell, a political science junior, and member of the executive board for OUTsource.

The event was scheduled to start at 6 p.m., but didn’t begin until 7, at which point Murrell introduced the event by saying, “Sorry for starting late. We are on ‘gay time.’ ”

Members of OUTsource performed a short skit showing what it was like to hang out in the office of their organization, followed by performances of three of Lexington’s professional drag queens.

Drag queen Rayan Starr, who calls herself “The Ghetto Goddess,” was the first performer of the night and has been performing in Lexington since the early 90s.

“I love doing performances,” she said. “I love entertaining crowds. As long as they are happy, I’m doing my job.”

After the performances, Gross and Bentley, who organized the drag show, performed for their first time as drag king and queen.

“I felt that doing drag would be a fun experience,” Bentley said. “I was nervous before the show, then I got up there and I was ecstatic, then afterward I thought, ‘Wow, I just did that!’ ”

Bentley said he decided to sing Britney Spears’ song “Toxic” after seeing Gross’ outfit.

“I saw what she was wearing, and I immediately thought of K-Fed, and I knew I had to do a Britney Spears song,” he said.

More than 80 people attended the event and the Cats Den was standing room only. Some of the attendees said they came to support what they believe is a worthy organization on campus.

“I thought the event was really good,” said Andrew Kerby, a political science junior. “OUTsource is wonderful. It’s a great resource to have on campus, to have a resource for the gay community on campus. Hopefully there will be more events like this.”

At the end of the evening, Mitchell said she was happy with the number of people who had attended an OUTsource event.

“I think the event went well,” she said. “I am very pleased with the response. It’s always very validating to see the faces in the crowd.

“We will always have something to celebrate and we would like to see something like this again.”