I’m heartbroken because I know the devastating effect a bill like this will have on all LGBTQ+ people in Tennessee (Picture: Getty)

As I looked around the crowd, I noticed little boys wearing tutus while holding hands with their families.

I was on the stage for one of the first Pride events in Bristol, Tennessee – the town I was born in – a few years ago and it just filled me with such joy to see the outpouring of love in the audience.

In fact, I ended up bawling my eyes out on stage because I never thought that I would be back in my hometown to see so many people cheer for me.

It’s moments like these that I’ll cherish because I want all LGBTQ+ children to feel comfortable in their own skin. So when they look up to a drag entertainer like me – literally, I’m a 6’4 Amazon! – I want to be that representation that I didn’t really have growing up.

Unfortunately, because an event like this was held in a public park, it’s now under threat from lawmakers who want to introduce a ban on ‘adult cabaret performance on public property’, including those of ‘male and female impersonators’.

I’m heartbroken because I know the devastating effect it will have on not just the local drag community, but all LGBTQ+ people in Tennessee.

Growing up, I was very flamboyant. I had way too much personality, femininity and fashion sense, even if I do say so myself. This difference to my peers made me stand out from the crowd, and I was a target for bullies at school.

My biggest fear is that bills like this will embolden more violence against our community (Picture: Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)

On top of that, I was raised Southern Baptist, so I had to deal with a lot of shame being thrown at me. I vividly remember a preacher calling me out in front of the entire church congregation, then praying over my head with holy water to get ‘the demon’ out of me. For such a long time, I was afraid of burning in hell – just for being me.

When I found drag at the age of 16 after sneaking into a club, I was immediately obsessed. It became an outlet for me to shake off all the negativity and it felt like I had finally found a calling.

I eventually went to East Tennessee State University in nearby Johnson City, but it was incredibly tough. Around that time, I was exploring my trans identity, so I was harassed while going to and from class, verbally threatened by other students and some teachers refused to call me by the name I preferred.

There were moments of joy though.

Any chance I got for film class projects, I’d do something drag-related. There was one particular acting talent show where I dressed as Maleficent and did a spoken-word piece about my love for Aurora – and I won!

Around 10 years ago, I eventually started performing in a local LGBTQ+ venue called New Beginnings in my university’s city, where I was a regular entertainer. I also travelled around neighbouring states for drag jobs whenever I could.

I loved what I did and I didn’t care if I was driving five hours to get to a gig essentially paying me peanuts, then running out of petrol on the way home. For years, I hustled like this before eventually making it onto RuPaul’s Drag Race (twice!) and then the All Stars version, too.

That’s when my hometown invited me back for their Pride event and I felt so lucky that I’d come as far as I had.

So when I think about Tennessee’s bill to essentially ban drag entertainers in public spaces, I feel so sad. Republican representative Chris Todd, who introduced the initial lower house motion, previously claimed drag shows amount to ‘child abuse when shown to under-18s’, which is simply outrageous.

How can the love that drag queens like me bring to audiences through our performances be compared to something as sinister as that?

The problem is, lawmakers like Representative Todd unfairly equate the lives of LGBTQ+ people with sex. But we shouldn’t be reduced to that – we’re made up of love, compassion, friendship and acceptance. Banning our expression of that in public spaces only severs important connections with each other.

Often, Prides or other affirming public events like it are some of the only times where we can feel like we belong. We can comfortably express ourselves among friends and family, as well as show younger generations that there’s no shame in being who we are.

The bill – which will likely be signed into law by Tennessee’s Republican Governor Bill Lee – will likely force LGBTQ+ people into areas like clubs or bars, but we need a whole range of spaces that cater to queer people. My biggest fear is that it’ll embolden more violence against our community.

So to Governor Lee, I say: I don’t know you, but – from researching you – I found out that you have a family that I’m sure relies on you to take care of them. My own family learned how to accept me, as well as understand my way of life and my job by being able to come to a Pride event. 

I believe in our strength as queer people (Picture: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)

A lot of people I know are able to find community, love, comfort and safety in those spaces because they can’t go to nightclubs to learn about who they are – and that’s not a direction that we want to push them at a young, vulnerable age.

I come from a generation where nightclubs, as well as the drug and alcohol scene within them, were the first places people were exposed to diversity. 

They quickly fell into substance abuse, depression, and even suicide. I don’t want that for my nieces and nephew and I don’t want that for any of Governor Lee’s family either – if they happen to be queer.

I want you to see us as the humans we are and I want you to allow us to exist in spaces that are public because we deserve to be out and proud in the light. 

I believe in our strength as queer people – I just hope that people in Tennessee don’t let it damage them too much. We were only just starting to build prominent LGBTQ+ communities, so this bill is likely to start tearing those down.

If this proposed law was around when I was starting out my drag career, I honestly don’t know if I’d be where I am today. I’d certainly be passionate about speaking up and fighting against it – just like I am now.

I feel so lucky and proud to be a part of HBO’s We’re Here, alongside fellow Drag Race alumni Shangela and Bob the Drag Queen. It’s actually through filming the third and latest season that I was able to fully embrace my trans identity.

I met a 75-year-old trans woman named Mandy – who had only come out five years earlier – and her wife, as well as 10-year-old trans girl Dempsey and her supportive parents. I was so struck by how loved they both were.

When I got back to my hotel one night after filming, something clicked in me. That’s when I told myself: Girl, you’re trans. I was so afraid to admit it because I didn’t really know what the consequences would be.

We live in a world where transness is not widely accepted or understood – even sometimes within the queer community itself.

Actually, alongside the Tennessee bill banning drag in public spaces, there’s another one proposing to ban doctors from providing gender-affirming medical treatment such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for transgender minors. There are similar bills being introduced all across the US too, which makes me sick.

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These bills are nothing but an attack on our rights as LGBTQ+ people and we must fight them. They’re a slap in the face to our growth as a community and to those who came before us and fought for our rights.

With politics today – not just in the US, but in the UK too – people might be asking: Is it safe to be myself? For me, drag gives me the ability to feel loved and celebrated.

Why on earth would we take that away from children?

Drag is going to survive. It was alive even when it was illegal many years ago – and it must continue to thrive in the future.

As told to James Besanvalle

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Drag shows are under threat from Tennessee lawmakers who want to introduce a ban on ‘adult cabaret performance on public property’.