Sasha Velour

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.

As a drag performer, my identity exists in music, art, and fashion, not in any one 'language' of gender or 'appearance.'

Trans women, trans men, AFAB - which is assigned female at birth - and non-binary performers, but especially trans women of color, have been doing drag for literal centuries and deserve to be equally represented and celebrated alongside cis men.

I've found that embracing the things that make me a little strange and different from other people, and learning to love that, makes me feel beautiful and fashionable every day.

Drag is literally so ancient that it predates modern understanding of gender, of transness, of queerness. Drag predates modern ideas of gender, of theater at all. Drag predates the word 'drag' itself.

Pride, to me, is a celebration of the past because we have come such a long way from the very first Pride parade marking the anniversary of the Stonewall riots, so it's a celebration of all that we've accomplished.

I have an art magazine about drag called 'Velour,' named after myself, and I have a monthly show called 'Nightgowns' that curates and presents some of the most creative and high-quality drag in a professional theater setting.

No matter what you're doing, whether it's a makeup tutorial or an interview or a lip sync, performance is the essence of drag. It is gender performance. Being able to produce a performance is what a superstar has to do.

When I started doing drag, I always put together multimedia elements for live performance.

Unfortunately, this world is not an easy place.

Racism is a problem everywhere, especially in this country, but all over the world, and especially within queer space.

Drag Race' has made a lot more people into fans of drag, and that's allowed local communities to grow and flourish, but it's up to individual queens to share the spotlight with their communities. I definitely want to be one of the people who does that.