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When it comes to reviving a 145-year-old comic opera, who better to enlist than drag superstar Jinkx Monsoon to liven things up? On Wednesday (Nov. 13), the Roundabout Theater Company announced its upcoming new musical Pirates! A Penzance Musical, starring Monsoon alongside Broadway veterans Ramin Karimloo and David Hyde Pierce. Billed as “reimagined, lovingly adapted […]
RuPaul’s Drag Race and We’re Here alum Bob the Drag Queen spent the better part of last year with pop icon Madonna. Now, the drag star is ready to tell fans what the singer is like behind the scenes. In a clip shared on Saturday (Sept. 7) from one of her recent standup shows, Bob […]
From one pink pony girl to another, drag icon Sasha Colby is sharing the love with breakout pop “Femininomenon” Chappell Roan.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 reacted to the pop star’s interpretation of her now-iconic catchphrase, calling herself “your favorite artist’s favorite artist.”
“The night of the finale for season 16, when I gave up the crown, was also the night of the finale for my Stripped [tour], and that’s when Chappell said it at Coachella,” she said in the interview. “To see Jimmy Fallon say my name is kind of wild. I just talked to Chappell, we just talked for a little bit. We were very meet-and-greet-y, like, ‘I love you, I think you’re amazing.’”
Colby originally referred to herself as “your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen” during her “Meet the Queens” interview for season 15 of Drag Race. Roan later presented herself using the phrase during her Coachella set in April, with many of her fans spreading the clip of her introduction online.
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During her recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Roan made sure to give proper credit where it was due. “That was a reference to Sasha Colby, and Sasha Colby said, ‘I’m your favorite drag queen’s favorite drag queen,’” she told the host. “It just hit me through the heart. And so I hope one day Sasha Colby watches me, and that’s why I said it.”
Colby added that she appreciated seeing a major pop star directly credit her for her contribution, and said she hoped more pop stars would take notes. “Drag has always been a mirror of pop culture,” she said. “Since Drag Race, we are pop, the tastemakers, and pop girlies look to us for inspiration — much like Chappell Roan! All I can say is, goddess sees goddess, you know? Greatness sees greatness! Your favorite artist’s favorite artist, baby!”
For most of her career as a performer, Jinkx Monsoon had to create her own model for success. Whether it was in music, stand-up or especially acting, the acclaimed drag star almost always took a do-it-yourself approach to finding stardom — mostly because opportunities for a transfeminine drag queen were, at best, limited.
“I’ve been screaming it for years: ‘Give drag performers real chances to show what we’re capable of,’” Monsoon tells Billboard over Zoom from her well-appointed New York apartment. “Because for so long, it was just lacking.”
Lately, though, it’s clear that someone was listening to her plea. On Friday (May 10), Monsoon starred in the newest episode of the beloved British sci-fi series Doctor Who. Titled “The Devil’s Chord,” the episode revolves around The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) traveling back in time to London 1963, intent on watching The Beatles record their debut album Please Please Me. But when they arrive, something has gone terribly wrong — The Fab Four, along with everyone else in the world, can’t seem to hold a tune.
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Enter Maestro, Monsoon’s malevolent, scene-stealing villain. Described by the performer as existing “somewhere between Greek mythology and Lovecraft,” Maestro introduces themself as an eldritch deity who is the literal embodiment of music itself. Hellbent on hoarding the concept of music for themself to create a symphony out of the ending of the universe, Maestro battles against The Doctor and Sunday using the power of music itself, before being banished by a magic musical chord from younger versions of Paul McCartney and John Lennon.
“This episode is so over the top and so stylized and heightened, that I felt very honored to be invited in — because I did have confidence in my ability to do that,” Monsoon says. “There’s parts of it where it feels like Looney Tunes, which makes a lot of sense to be me because music was such a big part of those cartoons.”
Below, Monsoon chats with Billboard about creating a memorable villain for the show, her starring role as Audrey in the current off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors, and why she hopes her success opens doors for even more trans performers.
Before we get into Doctor Who, I wanted to say congratulations on Little Shop of Horrors! It’s such a great role — what has it been like for you to take on this part?
It’s been strikingly easy! Honestly, I was so anxious about this, and the reason why it’s been easy is because the cast and crew is incredible. They are the best. I was very blessed and lucky to come into a wonderful cast and crew with Chicago, and here I am, again, in another setting where everyone is just happily coming to work to put on a really incredible show. Now that I’ve worked with Corbin [Bleu], I can’t imagine anyone else having been Seymour. James Carpinello and I started our rehearsal process together, so we very much feel like we’re in it together. It’s just been a dream come true.
There was so much anxiety I had about being a transfeminine performer and a drag entertainer coming in to play the female lead and the love interest in a show like this. But no one in the rehearsal process or backstage shared that feeling. Everyone else was so certain that this was going to be a hit, that it was easy to let go of that insecurity. I’ve been in situations where I hide my gender presentation or I don’t enforce my pronouns, because I just don’t want to be that person, I don’t want to be the Norma Rae of everything. But this has been such an affirming experience.
Well, let’s get into your latest role as Maestro in Doctor Who — how did you get involved in this project?
[Showrunner Russell T Davies] came to see this show I did called Together Again, Again, which was written by me and music directed by my music partner Major Scales, where we play ourselves in a dystopian future in our 80’s, and Jinkx has become kind of a monster. Like, full-blown Norma Desmond, but with the brassiness of Rosalind Russell — she’s grand and delusional. Russell came to see that show, and I guess on the walk home he thought, “Jinkx should be Maestro.” Eventually I got the call and he was very forthright, and told me he got the idea from seeing me in that show. That kind of nipped my impostor syndrome in the bud, because my first instinct would have been to say “Oh, my friend is trying to give me a leg up in the business.” But I genuinely felt that Russell trusted me to handle this role.
I know you’ve been a fan of the series for a while — what in particular about the universe of Doctor Who attracted you as a fan?
I have very eclectic taste in television, and I prefer to live in the realm of fantasy. I like things that are over the top, even to the point that I like watching old sitcoms because it’s a very presentational style of acting. But what I love about Doctor Who is that it’s got good writing, good acting, wonderful guest stars, and captivating plotlines that are, of course, larger than life, but that have a purpose and a meaning. This episode, for example, shows us that music — and just artistic expression — is necessary for our survival. Without it, we would go extinct. I love getting to be a part of that message at a time when I hope we’ve realized how essential art is after a pandemic that shut the industry down.
This is a very wild character you’re playing. How would you describe the character of Maestro?
I see Maestro as the embodiment of music, and I see them as a god who would also be interpreted as a demon by many. They are an eternal force that exists in the universe. And when you play a character that is that powerful and has existed for that long, certain things come to mind. First, they create their own rules — we see it in Maestro’s gender expression and pronoun reference. Maestro doesn’t care about human rules and societal standards, because they’re a god. Second, I think characters like that must be really bored. When you’ve been alive for a long, long time, you get bored. So, the genuine excitement of meeting someone like The Doctor who actually gives Maestro run for their money — that’s very, very exciting.
Jinkx Monsoon
Courtesy of BBC Studios
Part of what I loved about your performance was your ability to balance the campy, very arch bits of the character, while also being genuinely scary. What was your approach to finding a balance there?
I like to think about the fact that music can be erratic — Maestro can switch on a dime. And one of the scariest things about a person is when you have no idea what they’re going to do next. And when you have a character like Maestro that’s capable of pretty much anything, but you have no idea what they’re gonna do — that’s terrifying.
When it comes to the campiness, I feel like my whole life has been about studying character actors who make big choices feel natural. I think Bette Midler as Winifred [Sanderson in Hocus Pocus] is a great example — everything’s Shakespearean and over the top, but like, do we get sick of it? No! So, specifically for the acting style for Doctor Who, I brushed up on Michelle Gomez as The Mistress. When she plays a villain, they are nuanced, and I love that she has flipped so many female archetypes on their side. I really wanted to bring that to Maestro.
It’s also refreshing to see a show letting a drag performer have a well-written, interesting role, rather than throwing together a collection of stereotypes to make a character.
Yeah, I was extremely honored to be a part of that. There was some anxiety, though, because I thought, “If I don’t deliver, does that mean there’s not going to be future opportunities?” Luckily, I got welcomed into a beloved, professional, incredible production. I’ve said the words trust and respect over and over, but that’s what it was — they trusted me to play this character, and they respected me enough not to tone me down. They weren’t interested in diluting my performance, all of the direction was to help me refine but not de-queerify things. That was incredible, because trans performers and drag performers before me have made things possible, so that I could take another step forward for the next generation of trans and drag performers to come in behind me. And it feels really exciting to get to pay that forward.
All of this comes amid a string of huge career moments for you — between Doctor Who, Little Shop, your return to Chicago and your upcoming debut solo show at Carnegie Hall. Especially as a drag artist, what does it mean for you to finally be acknowledged and welcomed in these spaces?
There were definitely points in my life where I did not believe in my lifetime that we’d see such progress and representation. And now that we have, I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep it there — I will not let our community be pushed back, because this is beyond my wildest dreams. I was very realistic in my early 20s, and I set attainable goals for myself. Now, I gotta set some new goals.
But I also feel like it’s about godd–n time, because queer people have been the backbone of entertainment this whole time. But for so long, we had to hide that part of us to be in front of the camera, because we were not invited. When we started getting invited, it was very homogenized and was very much for straight audiences. And now, we have reached a point where queer people are writing stories with a queer lens and casting queer performers to tell these stories authentically and genuinely. And that is incredible, but I also know the work that we’ve all put in.
Yes, I won season five a decade ago, and I experienced so many wonderful things because of that. But it was a completely different game back then, and I just grew to accept that we were considered a subsect of the entertainment industry. But then I got fed up with that. And then that’s when Ben and I created the Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show, and that went to places we never imagined. I started to believe that we all do what we do, we just do it in drag. We’re showing the world that just because we do it in drag doesn’t mean we do it less than anyone else.
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And that’s happening despite what certain right-wing lawmakers have to say on the subject.
They’re a dying breed, I gotta say. They might be loud, but popular opinion is not on their side. I honestly think with every swing they take at the queer community, it’s another nail in their coffin. And I didn’t always feel that way. But I do feel that way now. Our consciousness, our perspective shifting, and these people are getting desperate. When you try to you try to gather everyone against a marginalized group of people hoping that their shared bigotry will rally them behind you, that’s despicable. I can’t think of a lower way of trying to lead your people. I can’t think of a bigger bastardization of the job they were hired to do than trying ostracizing and attacking constituents that they swore to protect. It just sickens me, so I will do everything in my power to fight that.
You mentioned needing to set some new goals — with this windfall of success, what have you not yet accomplished that you want to get to in the near future?
You know, I don’t even know how to answer that these days. Because, honestly, like — I am so happy with the things I’ve gotten to do recently that I just want to do a lot more of it. I’m hoping to do a lot more work on stage, I’m hoping to do more work in front of the camera. I just love when I get to do this, and I want to do a lot more of it. So on my bucket list at the moment is a lot more of the same. I don’t feel like I’ve peaked or plateaued, but I’m not in a rush.
For all the steps forward the music industry has taken when it comes to LGBTQ inclusion, Drag Race stars Trixie Mattel and Monét X Change say there’s still a ways to go when it comes to drag musicians.
During the latest episode of Mattel’s podcast The Bald and the Beautiful With Trixie and Katya, Mattel and X Change compared notes about life as a drag musician. When Mattel complimented her guest on her musical talents, X Change asked the host whether or not she felt there would ever be recognition for drag artists at the Grammys.
“I recently have been taking a break from music because I feel the glass ceiling so fiercely,” Mattel said in response. “I think I’ve just gotten to do everything that I’m going to get to do, because we’re only ever taken seriously about one month a year. And it kind of takes the wind out of your sails. I want to make music, but if I don’t have this wig on, no one will pay attention. But because I have this wig on, no one will take it seriously. So then what?”
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X Change agreed, saying that she often asks herself why she continues to make music when the industry doesn’t invest in drag artistry. “I often feel like, ‘Why am I even doing this,’” she said. “‘Why am I even putting all of this time, effort, money, everyone’s f–king patience into this thing?’”
Mattel then spoke about the cost of trying to sustain a career in music as an independent artist. “A cheap music video is, like, $30,000. And that’s when the directors are like, ‘Well, we’re not going to have food on set, and you won’t have a ride, and there’s no air conditioning,’” she explained.
X Change jumped in and added that music videos are also billed as being exceedingly necessary in order to maintain a steady following. “There’s such a machine where it’s like, ‘Well, you have to do the music video so it gets more press, you can talk about this thing …’ and it’s like, one thing does lead to another, but we’re independent artists. I have to self-fund all of this. There’s no label behind me pumping all this money into a single and into a project.”
Even with backing from a major label, Mattel pointed out that the industry is still brutal for up-and-coming artists. “I know artists who are signed, and I know about their deals. The record label can collect 80% of what they make, including touring and merch,” she said. “They could be like, ‘Here’s $2-3 million … but it’s an advance, which means that it goes against five album sales. So either you make us that much money or, at a certain point, you owe us an extra album because you didn’t make good on that amount.”
Each of Mattel’s two studio albums and two EPs — 2017’s Two Birds, 2018’s One Stone, 2020’s Barbara and 2022’s The Blonde and Pink Albums — have charted on Billboard‘s Top Album Sales chart, with The Blonde and Pink Albums serving as her highest debut (No. 48). X Change, meanwhile, released her debut EP Unapologetically in 2019, and is currently promoting her forthcoming two-part album Grey Rainbow, with the first volume set to release Friday, May 16, via PEG Records.
Check out the full conversation between Trixie Mattel and Monét X Change below:
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After making waves in 2022 with a cameo-filled album and award-winning staging, DRAG: The Musical is ready to run full steam ahead — wearing a pair of stilettos, mind you — into 2024. On Wednesday (Dec. 13), it was revealed that the show — which was co-written by RuPaul’s Drag Race alumna Alaska — would […]
A federal judge in Texas ruled Thursday that the state’s new law restricting drag performances was likely unconstitutional, issuing a temporary restraining order blocking the statute from going into effect on Friday.
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Following similar rulings by federal courts on such laws in Tennessee and Florida, U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled that Texas’ statute, called Senate Bill 12, likely violated the First Amendment by restricting free speech.
“The Court finds there is a substantial likelihood that S.B. 12 as drafted violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution under one or more of the legal theories put forward by the plaintiffs,” the judge wrote.
The ruling went in favor of a group of drag performers, drag production companies and non-profits that challenged the law. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, they argued that that S.B. 12 “criminalizes and restricts an enormous swath of constitutionally protected activity.”
Thursday’s order came as a temporary restraining order, which will only be in effect until the judge can issue a full written ruling. But the wording of the order indicates that he will likely strike down the law whenever he issues the more detailed decision.
Such a TRO, which can only be issued if a plaintiff proves they will suffer “irreparable harm” without one, was necessary because the law was set to go into effect on Friday.
“The court considers the impending infringement on the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights sufficient irreparable harm to warrant enjoining S.B. 12 while a final judgment is drafted,” Judge Hittner wrote.
Following the ruling, Paige Willey, spokeswoman for the Attorney General of Texas, told Billboard: “The people of Texas were appalled to learn of an increasing trend of obscene, sexually explicit so-called “drag” performances being marketed to families with children. The Office of the Attorney General will pursue all legal remedies possible to aggressively defend SB 12, the state law that regulates such performances to protect children and uphold public decency.”
A spokesperson for the ACLU did not immediately return a request for comment.
Passed by Texas lawmakers in May and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, S.B. 12 expands criminal restrictions on public performance of sexual conduct. The original bill included explicit references to drag shows, but they were removed in response to criticism. Instead, the final version bans sexual gestures that use “accessories or prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics.” Violators can face up to a year in jail, and businesses hosting events can be fined $10,000 for each violation.
Critics say such statutes, proposed or passed in states across the country over the past two years, are a thinly-veiled attack on the LGBTQ community. The new laws have been closely-watched by the music industry, over concerns that aspects of concerts could run afoul of broad new restrictions.
The ACLU filed its lawsuit earlier this month, arguing that – despite the changes to the wording – the new statute “unconstitutionally singles out drag.” They said it was also “sweepingly overbroad and vague and fails to give adequate notice of what it proscribes.”
“In its zeal to target drag, the Legislature also passed a bill so yawning in scope that it criminalizes and restricts an enormous swath of constitutionally protected activity, including theater, ballet, comedy, and even cheerleading,” the group wrote.
The suit was filed on behalf of nonprofit LGBTQIA+ organizations The Woodlands Pride and Abilene Pride Alliance; drag entertainment companies Extragrams, LLC and 360 Queen Entertainment LLC; and drag performer Brigitte Bandit.
Earlier this week, Judge Hittner held a two-day trial-like hearing on the arguments from both sides. A final ruling is expected early next week.
At 11:30 p.m. on Friday, June 2, attorney Brice Timmons was at an event in Memphis aptly named Big Gay Dance Party. He was de-stressing and commiserating with his co-counsel about the lack of action from a federal judge on their lawsuit against the state of Tennessee for its “drag ban.” They had hoped for a ruling before the weekend, but it hadn’t arrived yet — so, they resolved instead to celebrate the start of Pride Month.
Then, they checked their phones; the ruling had just dropped. “It was a ruling that that called the state on the carpet for every every aspect of the law’s unconstitutionality,” he tells Billboard over the phone. “The DJ just stopped the music, the announcer came up onto the stage and just yelled, ‘We won!’ Yeah, that was a high point of my career.”
Throughout his 70-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker found in favor of Timmons’ clients Friends of George’s, a Memphis-based LGBTQ theater company and drag troupe. The judge determined the Tennessee’s Adult Entertainment Act (or “AEA”) was an “unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech,” and permanently prevented District Attorney General Steven Mulroy of Shelby County, Tenn. — the defendant in the case — from enforcing the law.
While Timmons says that he is “very proud to have done this work,” he’s not all that surprised by the outcome. “This has not been very challenging legal analysis — it’s just a new generation of bigots trying the same old tricks,” he says.
Those “tricks” Timmons refers to had the state appealing to the interest of protecting children from explicit sexual content, claiming that the law was intended to be narrowly applied to only certain kinds of drag performances in public spaces.
But LGBTQ advocates and community members like Friends of George’s pointed out that the law’s intentional vagueness left the door open for the state to apply the law in a wide variety of ways — a fact that Judge Parker agreed with, saying in his ruling the AEA was “both unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad” in its scope.
When looking at the defense mounted by Tennessee, Timmons recognizes the tactics used. “Going into court and lying is a long standing legal strategy for governments that want to abuse their power,” he says. “It’s not that their legal theory is simply incorrect; it’s false. So they had to walk into court, to lie about why the law was passed, to lie about what the law says, and to lie about what the effects of the law will be.”
Timmons’ case, meanwhile, revolved largely around a number of First Amendment legal precedents set by the Supreme Court. In one case — Ashcroft v. ACLU — the Court upheld that a censorship law passed by Congress aimed at preventing children from accessing pornographic material on the internet was a violation of the First Amendment.
“Those laws were much more carefully drafted, and they did not have an a fundamentally inappropriate purpose. They weren’t targeting certain types of performers or certain types of websites,” he explains. “And still the Supreme Court said, ‘The state doesn’t get to insert itself into communicative decision making, unless it does so in just the most carefully, narrowly crafted way.’”
Since the ruling was officially released, the state has not officially announced an appeal — it has 30 days from the date of the ruling to file and appeal on the decision. But Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told The New York Times in a statement not only that the state planned to appeal the decision, but that he feels the law “remains in effect outside of Shelby County.”
Timmons doesn’t mince his words when it comes to Skrmetti’s claim: “I think it’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a lawyer say.” He points out that while Judge Parker offered a permanent enjoinment to the district attorney general of Shelby County and not the entirety of the state, he still ruled that the law itself was unconstitutional.
“That means there is no constitutional application for that law,” Timmons says. “If Jonathan Skrmetti wants to tell law enforcement officers in the state of Tennessee to go in and force an unconstitutional law, then I guess I’ll just have a cottage industry suing those law enforcement officers.”
As for other states where restrictions or bans on public drag performances have been passed, Timmons says that the Tennessee ruling is going to play a major factor. He knows this from experience — when he answers his phone for this interview, he’s just leaving court in Florida, where he argued as lead council against the state’s restrictive drag law on behalf of Hamburger Mary’s.
“[The Tennessee ruling] was the first thing that the judge here in Florida asked about during the hearing today,” he says. “It seems like judge Parker’s ruling is going to be, you know, a guide for how other courts will address this.”
Timmons says he’s already working with lawyers in Montana and Texas preparing to mount their own suits against their states’ respective drag bans, and that he and his team will “do everything we can to help them.” As for the impending threat of an appeal from Tennessee? “We’ve got a good team of lawyers, and nothing succeeds like success.”
After seeing Maren Morris offer her own interpretation of his iconic style, Willie Nelson has some thoughts. On Wednesday (June 7), Morris graced the cover of Billboard alongside drag stars Eureka O’Hara, Landon Cider, Sasha Colby and Symone. Surrounded by all kinds of different drag, Morris decided to dress in full Willie Nelson drag, complete […]
Maren Morris downs a shot of tequila with a wince. “I love that we’re taking shots and then saying, ‘OK, so let’s talk about Ron DeSantis,’ ” Morris says with a chuckle.
The four drag luminaries she’s toasting with today — Eureka O’Hara, Landon Cider, Sasha Colby and Symone — grimace through their own post-shot puckers at the mention of the Florida governor’s (and now, presidential hopeful’s) name. It’s an otherwise cheerful weekday in Los Angeles: Pop jams ranging from ABBA to Doja Cat play in the background as the quintet gabs gleefully about everything from Three’s Company to O’Hara’s adorable dachshund puppy, Princess Pink, who makes occasional appearances nearby.
But the shadow of the world outside can’t stay beyond this room for long. The mention of DeSantis — who recently signed a batch of anti-LGBTQ+ bills into law that collectively amount to a full attack on the civil rights of queer and trans people in Florida — is just one reminder that in 2023 alone, over 450 bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights have been introduced by right-wing politicians into state legislatures across the country, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. That’s more than double the amount of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation introduced in the same legislative session in 2022.
The five assembled today frequently, and fervently, use their respective individual platforms to speak against such attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. O’Hara, Cider, Colby and Symone are alums (and, in a few cases, winners) of some of TV’s most beloved drag reality shows, like RuPaul’s Drag Race and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula. Morris, who’s moderating today’s discussion, has made a name for herself not only as one of country music’s brightest stars, but as an outspoken advocate — both onstage and off — for queer and trans people, calling out their mistreatment in the music industry and beyond.
The legislation leveled against those communities spans a wide range of issues — censoring discussions of gender and sexuality in public schools, banning best-practice medical care for transgender youth (and in some instances for adults, too), eliminating nondiscrimination protections for the LGBTQ+ community. And another type of legislation has quickly captured national attention: so-called “drag bans.” In March, Tennessee became the first state to pass a bill into law prohibiting “adult cabaret” performances (the definition of which includes “male or female impersonators”) in public or in the presence of minors.
“It’s just now becoming public knowledge how horrible it is there,” says O’Hara, who grew up in Tennessee, her voice quivering. “It’s scary to be trans today and to be a drag queen.” Colby puts it simply: “It’s about controlling queer kids.”
After the state’s ban sparked a legal battle with Memphis-based theater company Friends of George’s, a federal judge temporarily blocked the law. Then, on June 2, U.S. District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that the law violates performers’ First Amendment rights and deemed it unconstitutional. The ruling prevents the law from taking effect in Tennessee’s Shelby County and creates potential for further legal challenges elsewhere in the state. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has already said that he plans to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
“This ruling is a turning point, and we will not go back,” said GLAAD president/CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement. “Every anti-LGBTQ elected official is on notice that these baseless laws will not stand and that our constitutional freedom of speech and expression protects everyone and propels our culture forward.”
But LGBTQ+ advocates in Tennessee point out that, overturned or not, the law’s initial passage still accomplished one goal: creating a culture of confusion and fear surrounding self-expression in the state. Due to the intentional vagueness of the law, its enforcement would come down to individual interpretation, sparking hypothetical questions like, “If Harry Styles comes and does a concert at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville and has on a frilly shirt or a skirt or a dress…” posits Morris. “What do we do then? In a place like Tennessee, it’s obviously really meant to fearmonger.”
Maren Morris in drag as Willie Nelson photographed on May 9, 2023 in Los Angeles. Hair by Laura Polko at PRTNRS. Makeup by Diane Buzzetta at Blended Strategy. Drag Makeup Consulting by Landon Cider. Manicure by Queenie Nguyen at Nailing Hollywood. Styling by Dani Michelle at The Only Agency. Vintage shirt and bolo tie, Our Legacy jeans, Nick Fouquet hat.
Munachi Osegbu
At least 15 other states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas, are either considering or have already passed legislation similar to Tennessee’s drag ban — and that’s creating an impending sense of dread that keeps the drag stars and Morris fired up. “If you don’t want to go to a drag show, don’t go to a drag show. If you don’t want to have your kids at a drag show, don’t take your kids to a drag show. But don’t put that on us!” Symone exclaims. Cider nods in agreement. “The only part of ‘grooming’ that I’m doing,” he says, “is grooming kids to find joy in their authentic selves.”
Maren Morris: How have you been coming to terms with the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills passing through the state legislatures around the country? I live in Tennessee, and I feel like that’s unfortunately at the forefront for a lot of them.
Symone: I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it; I think I’ve just realized that I am in a rage about it. Growing up, it wasn’t like it is now, and it’s frustrating to see all this hate, this vitriol for people who just spread love and only want to be seen and accepted. I cannot believe in 2023 we’re here. Especially after doing the respective [TV] shows that we’ve done and being embraced over all these years, for it to feel like such a backlash is insane to me. I won’t come to terms with it because we deserve everything that you think that we don’t deserve.
Morris: Have you seen it affect your own bookings or your friends’ bookings?
Sasha Colby: Right now, being in gigs with the other season 15 [Drag Race] girls, I feel like in our group chats we’re all very much on high alert and asking our friends, like Aura [Mayari] who’s in Tennessee, “How is it?” I think everyone’s just being very cautious.
Drag is so popular right now [because] it’s hitting a nerve with people, both good and bad. The bad is that they see how good we’re doing and how happy we’re making people and how out of the matrix we are. Kids are coming! It’s not grooming, it’s just making space for them to be themselves.
Landon Cider: When we were hiding and forced to create secret spaces, we found community. We were bonding and forging these relationships in this underground culture. Now that it’s celebrated in the mainstream, it backfired. It’s thrown in our face. We didn’t force it to be mainstream! They did!
Colby: We weren’t allowed in cis spaces. We weren’t allowed to be anything but outcasts. And then we share it with the world, and they just want to colonize our thoughts as well as everything else.
Symone: I think it does scare them because of the kids. The kids are seeing us, and they grow up saying, “Well, why would I need to be anything other than this?” That is scary for people who are not of this generation and who grew up a different way.
Sasha Colby photographed on May 9, 2023 in Los Angeles. Hair by Jazlyn Simons. Makeup by James Michael Perez. Michael Ngo custom bodysuit, gloves, and boots.
Munachi Osegbu
Morris: There is not a “one size fits all” conveyor belt of parenting; everyone has a different thing. Saying that this is all “adult” — some drag is, absolutely! But I’ve seen the Mrs. Doubtfire reference made a lot, where it’s hilarious if it’s a cis [straight] male in drag. Then it’s OK for the kids to see, but God forbid you see someone truly expressing themselves, entertaining and just being free.
Eureka O’Hara: It’s OK if it’s a joke. But we take this seriously — this gives us inspiration and life. I come from East Tennessee, and I went through all of this times 10 living there. It makes me so mad — I have a trans Black sister who just moved in with me a few months ago, and she’s finally doing OK after 19 years of being abused. And that’s what this is.
You all know it’s not about drag. Let’s be real. These [are] scare tactics, and it just gets me so emotional. It’s about how we express ourselves, and it’s about the youth — because we have the queerest youth we’ve ever had right now. And that’s what they’re mad about. These kids are learning about who they are before they’re 18, 25, 30 years old and still have to deal with abuse like this.
Colby: The whole thing with being trans is they sexualize us. It’s funny when it’s a joke, but as soon as they sexualize us, then they’re going to want to control, like how they do with cisgender women, how they do with kids.
Cider: They’re projecting their own hatred and fear of their own community and their own small “safe” spaces.
Morris: What’s that saying? “Every threat from them is an actual admission.”
Colby: Exactly. It’s always them showing their cards.
Symone: I also just want to put out there that people may think now that it’s just the drag queens, it’s just trans people. But if they can do it to them, then they can do it to anybody else. Don’t think that just because they’re attacking us right now that y’all are going to be somehow exempt from it. We’re just the easiest targets. Just look at history.
That’s another thing that I cannot stand — the misinformation. Know what you’re speaking about, know what you’re saying before you speak. You don’t have to like a trans person. But don’t say things that you don’t know anything about. Educate yourself. Don’t put your stuff on somebody else. What did Madonna say? “Don’t hang your sh-t on me.”
Cider: Don’t push your legislature to take control and tell other people what they can or cannot do [with their bodies]. Usually, it is religious reasons why they’re doing all of this because their beliefs are binary. When we have this particular religious control, they want to put fearmongering into what has been celebrated because they don’t understand it.
Eureka O’Hara photographed on May 9, 2023 in Los Angeles. Hair by Jaymes Mansfield. Makeup by Loris Volkle. Marco Marco custom dress.
Munachi Osegbu
Morris: The fact is, they don’t have solutions for actual problems — this is their niche thing that they get to go off on. I’m from Texas, I live in Tennessee, and I do love the community I have there, but these bills almost incentivize us to turn on one another. They’re rewarding us to turn each other in, which feels kind of like a Nazi Germany thing where we turn on our own communities.
Colby: And they call it “patriotism.”
Morris: With drag being more popular than ever right now, how do you think it ultimately influences pop culture?
Colby: We used to be a mirror — like in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, we would mirror pop culture. Now we get to be pop culture. We are who celebrities, designers, artists want to work with or are inspired by.
O’Hara: Obviously, there’s so much bad that comes from the hatred and the discrimination. But to have it be publicly talked about and having these discussions — like, how many celebrities have stood up for drag lately?
Cider: It’s interesting because it’s kind of the flip for me. As a drag king, I don’t see myself and my version of my art form celebrated the way that the art of drag queens is. So it’s bittersweet because I see my sisters being catapulted into this stardom, and I’m so excited and happy for all of them. But when are we going to understand that kings have been around for just as long, if not longer, in some cultures? Sexism and misogyny take over a lot, and that’s why trans women have been hidden in secret, too; it’s that same misogyny, the same sexism.
I am not trans, but when I see my trans siblings getting attacked… If you attack one of us, you attack all of us. And it’s the same when I see my siblings being celebrated — you celebrate one of us, you celebrate all of us. So I’m celebrating them, but I’m still waiting for us to be recognized and fully embraced. We see masculinity celebrated on the runway on RuPaul’s Drag Race all the time — in the Snatch Game or Victoria [Scone] and Mo Heart doing these very masculine looks — but we still don’t see kings.
O’Hara: You talked about the sexism and misogyny — it’s also the heteronormative culture of “Men are men, women are women,” and seeing a drag king is probably even harder for them to see.
Colby: Because they don’t know how to sexualize and objectify you.
O’Hara: Tea!
Morris: Piggybacking on that, these bills are so vague in their language that it’s intentionally hard to know where the line is between what is drag and what is not, and it’s obviously really meant to eradicate the existence of trans people. I mean, even a lot of these [male] country artists wear tighter jeans than I do.
Colby: And have bigger highlights! But that’s the thing: All the beauty in country music is always so good.
Landon Cider photographed on May 9, 2023 in Los Angeles. Hair by Wigs By Vanity. Makeup by Landon Cider. Fontasia L’Amour suit, ORTTU shirt.
Munachi Osegbu
Morris: It’s elevated, right? Dolly Parton famously said that if she wasn’t Dolly, she would be a drag queen. Especially when I’m going into glam for an event, I’m looking at a lot of y’all’s photos. Like, talk about culture and impact — it affects me, too! I want to sit and be beat for the gods! Even that language — I just said something that was totally born out of this community. I exist in this space of country music, where you don’t have to do much to be seen as a brave voice, unfortunately.
Symone: And that’s why it’s so important for you to be here, because country music — and I’ll also add in rap and hip-hop here — those genres need people to come out and say something more than any other [genre] because those are the ones that are the most heteronormative.
Colby: And they have a lot of people’s ears in America. They are two of the most listened-to genres in the country.
Symone: For you to be here and say those things is so important — we need all our divas. We need you to love us now.
Morris: Are there any specific examples of good, helpful allyship that you’ve seen from artists in the last few years?
Cider: Aside from you, I look at somebody like Lizzo and the show she did in Nashville recently [with drag performers].
Symone: Yes, completely. If you’re going to Tennessee this summer for touring, get the girls up there. Get some kings up there, too!
Colby: The local girls, too, because the local performers are the ones in danger here, especially in these small towns with a lot of drag. I’ve noticed that a lot of small Southern towns have these safe spaces for queer people, and they are the ones who are going to feel the impact of all this legislation first. We get to be the face and the voice and try to do our best, but it’s these small towns that we really have to be concerned about.
Symone photographed on May 9, 2023 in Los Angeles. Hair by Gigi Goode. Makeup by RYLIE. Marko Monroe custom dress.
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Morris: For anyone who may be reading this, what can people do to help?
Symone: Vote. That’s first and foremost.
O’Hara: Go to these organizations that work with lobbyists to watch out for the progression of these bills. Because it’s not just at a state and national level that we’re being harmed. It’s the small community governments, it’s the city governments, it’s these local places. We have organizations like ACLU and places of that nature, every state has those lobbyists — the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition would be a great one for anyone to donate to. Of course you have to vote, but we scream that all day every day. It’s not just about voting for the president.
A lot of times, I think the most important thing is to take care of the people around you who aren’t being looked after. Talk to the quiet queer kids that look scared, that aren’t being social. Go befriend the people that don’t look happy. Stop being mean girls, and that goes for gay people, too. Step up and be there for each other, for someone other than yourself and the people who make you feel cool.
Cider: Be an active ally when it matters. If you’ve shared a smile, a laugh, a memory with a queer person, don’t let that memory hide in the closet. Take that memory where it counts — to your pulpits, to your family reunions, to the locker rooms, to the places where you know you’re going to get sh-t on for speaking out for us. That’s where it matters the most because maybe it’ll open some eyes.
Colby: I always tell my cis-het friends who have children, “You don’t have to go to every protest and stand on your soapbox. What you do have control over is the kids you created. All you can do is leave this world a little better than you left it. Make those kids allies.”
Morris: Is there anything y’all want to ask me?
Cider: You’re using your platform beautifully already, and we appreciate you, we thank you for everything. But it’s also not a hard thing to do, to be an ally and to use your platform in the way that you do. How would you encourage your peers to do the same?
Morris: I have heard the term “Shut up and sing” more times than I can count — that’s always the cutesy little threat that they like to make. So I would say to my peers who are artists and to record-label heads, publishers, songwriters: I don’t think any of us got into this art form to be an activist, but that’s ultimately thrust upon you to exist in this space and to feel like you can sleep at night. You’re going to lose fans along the way — that is just part and parcel of being public-facing. But there is a lane that you’re widening; I see it year over year at my shows, the crowd feels so diverse and so safe. I know everyone likes money, but is it worth your biography saying that you never picked a side because both sides pay money to buy a T-shirt?
This story will appear in the June 10, 2023, issue of Billboard.