Friends of Equality are
Friends of
Doreen
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Meet Doreen, crusader of love, equality, and freedom to be who we are.
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Welcome to Friends of Doreen
Hi darlings! Meet Doreen Devine, a baby drag queen ready to burst onto the scene with messages of hope, love, and belonging. For years, Doreen’s voice was stifled, but now she’s here to spread acceptance, understanding, and equality, especially during these times when drag is under attack.
Doreen DeVine is a singing mental health queen played by Darren Elliott, an educator, speaker, coach for narcissism and therapist.
Doreen wants everyone to see the incredible diversity of drag queens. We can’t be summed up with stereotypes. Many, like Doreen, felt our voices squashed in a heteronormative world. Through drag, we’ve found our true selves and the power to express what we couldn’t before. Doreen, a character created by Darren, speaks out against dominant cultural norms in ways Darren never could. She bravely shares her mental health journey, including intimate insights into living with narcissism, to foster compassion and understanding.
Doreen is bold, beautiful, and as she discovers her humanity and loving connections with others through her own personal work, she’ll share her journey to help others find their light too. After years of yearning for the understanding she and her family needed for healing, she’s dedicated to this passion project.
Drag queens aren’t evil; we’re vibrant, creative souls who deserve to be seen and heard. Doreen understands the stigma and is determined to change perceptions.
Having faced and overcome the shame inflicted by her father’s creative shaming, Doreen is ready to perform again after 25 long years. When she sits at the piano to sing, the song often pulls her into heartfelt messages. She pauses the music to share therapeutic insights, creating a space for increased awareness and understanding, helping listeners connect deeply with her experiences.
Join us, follow Doreen’s journey on social media as she adds her voice to messages from Darren; let’s spread love, understanding, and fabulousness together!
Doreen stands for acceptance, love, and freedom to be who you are.
All humans need to love and feel loved, to feel our belonging with others, and to have the freedom to be who we are. Doreen stands for everyone. We all belong and we all deserve to share our human needs with others, like our ancestors before us.
Welcome to the world of Doreen DeVine, where freedom and self-expression shine brightly.
“Drag has opened the door for me to shine my light, a door my father tried to close. Doreen represents the freedom to be yourself, to shine your light even when others say you don’t have one. My father convinced me I was nothing special, and I believed him, staying small for far too long.”
Darren Elliott
Click on Doreen’s picture for a sample of her short media posts of acceptance, belonging, and mental health education.
“I stopped singing 25 years ago, silenced by the shame my father imposed on me. Now, I’m reclaiming my voice as Doreen, channeling my disowned parts and creativity in bigger ways than I could access as Darren. Drag was the support I needed to start sharing my gifts.”
FAQ: Why are you doing this?
Click on the video below for my personal story.
“Drag brings voice to many voices that have been suppressed and made small or silenced by others.”
“Drag is important to give voice to that fact that no one is evil, the act of othering someone as being evil is abusive because it can have a profound negative impact on their mental health and who they are as a person.”
Darren Elliott
Some quotes from our Social Media Videos Super-Fans:
“Doreen has been living in disconnection and she didn’t know it. Now she is reaching for connection and she is learning about herself and she is bumbling along the way and she is making mistakes but she is learning and modelling self acceptance and self compassion because that is where acceptance of others and compassion for others starts.”
— Darren
Doreen, what’s your secret?
“There is no such thing as too big when it comes to fascinators, if you can fasten it, you can rock it - just don’t hurt your neck. And love others. You go, girl!”
Doreen DeVine
“Drag rejects the gender norms, put on us by our cultures and beliefs, and embraces just being, and allowing yourself to be whoever you are. Previous generations were so deeply programmed that it was wrong to be different, I was among them as a teenager and young adult, and it was a painful lonely, depressed journey. Many people still live hiding today, not able to feel their belonging because no one can see or understand their actual experience - that is disconnection, I know it too well myself, and it is still a struggle that needs our support. We need to support each other as a community, feel our belonging without the need to compete, that others need to lose for me to win, that’s narcissism caused by disconnection, don’t embrace that. We are better together, and we compete because it’s good to push ourselves, not because the winner is the best person. They are the best at the given set of tasks, but our value is still the same. We do not need to live up to others standards, we all have have different standards and who cares! If we just accept each other in our differences, this will fall away.“
— Darren
Hi darlings, I am Doreen Devine, a baby drag queen just bursting to come out in a bigger way. My voice was blocked most of my life, and now it’s coming alive with messages of hope, love, and belonging. Doreen is here to promote acceptance, understanding, and equality during a time when drag is under attack.
No matter who you love, no matter what gender you identify with, no matter what colour your skin is, what culture you grew up in, what economic status you have, whether or not your gender matches your sex or if you changed your body to match your gender identity, no matter what size or shape or weight your body is, no matter your sexual orientation, you belong and you are welcome here. I didn’t feel my belonging for many years, and now I can see the truth. We all belong as humans among humans. Even me. Even you.
Love and kindness is practiced as a good way to get through life. As a community the more we accept each other the more we accept ourselves.
Happy Pride everyone!
Video below: Doreen Sharing about her me vs. you reality in the middle of a song.
“Drag has been accused of grooming, by people who are endlessly grooming their children with regards to their belief system.
Drag is absolutely not grooming, drag is freedom of expression of joy and celebration of art forms of various different types, tied together without imposing religious or cultural rules and restrictions about what is OK when it comes to gender, attraction, and consensual loving relationships. between adults.
Love is love, and Rejection is rejection and you are causing the ill when you reject others for who they experience themselves to be, why would you think you understand someone else’s experience better than they themselves, that they are just confused? That is narcissistic, you do not. I don’t either. You cannot know what I feel in my body regarding my feelings of attraction and gender identification.
Humans are pack animas and we have a range of healthy diversity in our experience of gender and orientation, like other species. Just because we are fewer doesn’t mean we should not exist. That goes down to the fewest of few, humans belong among humans period.
There are those who think being gay is some kind of mental health disorder, it is absolutely not. Rejection can make it into a disorder, however.”
— Darren
We all belong as humans among humans.
FAQ: All this love and kindness, are you for real?
Absolutely! At FriendsOfDoreen.com, we wholeheartedly believe in the power of love and kindness. Doreen DeVine, portrayed by Darren Elliott, embodies this philosophy. When we treat each other with love, we create positive "Love Loops," as Darren discusses in his upcoming book. Kindness not only feels good but also fosters a healing, connected environment. Let's cultivate joy, trust, and playfulness together!
FAQ: How do I know if my worldview is impacted by trauma?
An untraumatized worldview is characterized by curiosity and a positive outlook towards others, assessing each situation as it comes. Conversely, if you feel the world is dark and people can't be trusted, you might be experiencing a traumatized worldview. Trauma can make us suspicious and disconnected, misinterpreting others' intentions. Healing involves recognizing these patterns and working towards a more open and trusting perspective.
FAQ: So, are you saying that we can have perfect mental health if we just love each other all the time?
No, none of us are perfect and it's more complex than that. While love and kindness are powerful, we also need to address trauma responses and seek support for healing to release negative energies. Personal growth and community connection are essential. At FriendsOfDoreen.com, we promote living vulnerably and connecting deeply with others, fulfilling our human need for love and belonging.
FAQ: I’m skeptical, do you have perfect mental health?
No one has perfect mental health, including us. Darren, who plays Doreen, embraces compassion as a tool to stay connected and kind, and he can experience triggers into his angry child when it hits his familial attachment trauma. Through personal experiences with trauma and mental health challenges, Darren learned the importance of compassion, boundaries, and personal growth. At FriendsOfDoreen.com, we aim to create a supportive and understanding community where everyone can thrive.
FAQ: How can I start making positive changes in my life?
Begin by introducing more warmth, trust, love, kindness, and acceptance into your daily interactions. Follow us on social media for uplifting messages and look for and join uplifting community events, online if you can’t find local to you. Every choice you make can contribute to a more loving and connected life. Together, we can break intergenerational trauma patterns and create a brighter future for ourselves and others.
At FriendsOfDoreen.com, we believe in the transformative power of love and acceptance. Join us in spreading joy, celebrating diversity, and fostering a community where everyone feels valued and supported. Let's make the world a more compassionate place, one act of kindness at a time
Watch the rebirth of Doreen DeVine.
Doreen promotes acceptance and equality for all. She promotes the ability to see beauty in all different forms, to develop love and respect for all the beautiful creatures on our planet, and to recognize the trauma of racism, homophobia, sexism, misogyny and the patriarchy has had on our mental health, and our disconnection with others, and all the different painful experiences of separation that creates. Many disorders can be linked to being rejected as a human for who we are. We all need love, belonging, and acceptance as we are, not as you hope us to be. We need to feel our acceptance to others to feel our acceptance for ourselves, otherwise we will use defences to be strong alone, and these defences impair relationships. If I don’t lean on you, you won’t lean on me and our relationship will not deepen.
We humans are pack animals, we all need to share what’s really happening for us inside to feel seen and understood and fully connected with others. Doreen is coming out of hiding as she shares openly about her narcissistic reactions, what that looks like and feels like, where it’s coming from, and how she deals with it.
Doreen is a recovering narcissist.
Aware of her impact and determined to have the best relationships, she is working on her empathy skills, slowly getting in touch with negative emotions, intentionally looking for the value in others. She now understands that abuse damages her relationships, and she wants to build them up. She understands that her loved ones don’t deserve her rage, her silent treatments, her guilt trips and manipulations to get what she wants, she needs to develop trust that honest, authentic communication will work for her, to let go of lying for convenience and to make herself look good and therefore feel good. Her worldview is shifting through new co-created experiences, she’s learning that people are not out for themselves, that most people are not judging her (she used to judge first, now she looks for goodness). She undertands that who she is with others impacts who they are with her. She has started creating what Darren has coined, “Love Loops”, the name of his first book still being written. Darren is an educator, speaker, therapist, and through Doreen, a mental health singing drag queen. Darren has his first TEDx talk scheduled in October, 2024 with TEDx Wilson Park. You can see his educational videos, playful duets, shorts and podcast interviews on YouTube and Social Media.