I do drag. Just because my drag is not the drag of Creme Fatale or Holy McGrail doesn't mean it's less drag. I perform live; I just sing with dancers. It's drag on a different level.
The way I've always looked at drag has been a little bit different maybe than other people because the drag community that I started doing drag in is full of trans people and women and people of various educational backgrounds, of different ages.
The inspiration of my drag is the history of drag, the long tradition of drag queens being at the forefront of queer activism. That informs my drag style, and in a sense, that is the direction we need to go in the future.
'Drag Race' doesn't claim to represent drag as a whole. 'Drag Race' is a reality show. If you see real drag shows, we just do drag and respect each other's art and who your real identity is - name, gender, hair color, anything.
At the end of the day, I just love drag so much that it's not enough for me to be a successful drag queen. I want to do right by my drag community as a whole... creating opportunities for other performers, documenting and uplifting amazing drag, and generally just contributing a lot of love and respect to our fabulous little world!
Personally, I like drag that's a little rough around the edges, drag you can run around in it, drag you can get in the Uber without worrying about!
People pull from drag culture because drag artists are - it's the ultimate art form and it's the last underdog art form. I mean, even clowns have college, you know what I mean? Drag queens, you have to learn drag from another drag queen.
I think that's what happens when drag starts to go mainstream: All of a sudden, you're watching 'The View' and there are three drag queens on there and it's not a joke. Yes, we're here, we're queer and you better deal with it. 'Cause we ain't going nowhere.
Drag can make you a little more fearless and I think girls especially love drag because they get to see somebody define their own standard of feminine beauty.
I want to do something that is not just a pastiche of drag that's come before but is really authentically me. I try to tune out all the drag that's out there and tap into the drag that I was doing when I was a little kid - when I didn't even know the word 'queer' or that gay people were out there.
A lot of people still have the idea that drag goes from one end of the gender spectrum to the other end of the gender spectrum, and they expect drag queens to be masculine out of drag and hyper-feminine in drag. I think that portrays a lot of binary thinking and, ultimately, a lot of misogyny.
I think for many people, they think that being in drag means you want to be a girl. Being trans and doing drag is completely different.
It's not just putting on a little bit of makeup and putting on a dress. Some drag queens duct tape their heads, some drag queens are bound and strapped and pulled in every which direction. To be in drag is no small endeavor.
Obviously drag has different intentions and my drag has always been about gender illusion.
A drag queen is one that usually goes to a ball and that's the only time she gets dressed up. Transvestites live in drag. A transsexual spends most of her life in drag.
Sometimes if you're dealing with straight interviewers they're a little more excited if you're in drag: 'Oooh! Aaaah! Eeeee!' But if you're just sitting there out of drag, they think you're just a bitter queen.