'Now is not a time to flop': Drag queens slam anti-LGBTQ legislation at SXSW

We can’t be sure, but smart money says that only one South by Southwest session continued into a nighttime show at Oilcan Harry's on March 16.

Three “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars — Season 12 winner Jaida Essence Hall, Season 13 winner Symone and Season 13 finalist Gottmik — joined The Trevor Project’s Kevin Wong for a panel titled "Don't Be a Drag, Just Be a Queen." SXSW hosted the session as a wide array of discriminatory bills across the country threaten the LGBTQ community, including drag performers.

For example: A few dozen demonstrators gathered that Thursday at the Capitol to protest Texas' Senate Bill 14, which would prohibit children from having certain forms of treatment for gender transitioning, gender reassignment or gender dysphoria and would prohibit the use of public money to provide those procedures and treatments. Tennessee, meanwhile, just passed a law restricting drag performances in public.

Thursday’s SXSW session addressed the wave of legislation seeking to roll back rights for LGBTQ Americans and that wave's corrosive effect on the mental health of the community; they also spent time celebrating the panelists’ love of drag. And, of course, Wong asked whom they’re rooting for on Season 15 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which airs Friday on MTV. Here’s what you need to know.

All the queens see drag as a lifeline.

Symone saw RuPaul on TV at 16 and knew she wanted that freedom of expression for herself. She saved up money to buy makeup and taught herself how to paint. Hall reluctantly entered a drag contest for first-timers with a $500 prize — “I wanted to see what it was going to give,” she said. (Hall got all of the best lines on Thursday.) She described drag as filling a void: “It was like a high that I never knew I could have in my life.”

Gottmik, who identifies as a transgender man out of drag, never saw the art form as accessible, with few examples available of drag artists who also were assigned female at birth. But journeys to bars and early dabbling in drag started Gottmik’s transgender journey to a place of self-acceptance. “I can’t thank drag enough for what it’s done in my life,” she said. (Gottmik uses she/her pronouns in drag and he/him out of drag.)

And of course, she said, “I knew I could slay.”

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“For me it was a little scary,” Symone said of entering the super-popular reality competition. “It’s scary sharing your art in that way.”

Gottmik saw the show as an opportunity to be the role model she once needed: “This is my chance to be that person and show the world that drag is for everybody.”

All the queens take the high-profile visibility that comes with the show seriously. LGBTQ identities are still underrepresented in media.

“In my life, it’s not been the easiest road,” Hall said. She knows that other people out there also need the help she’s received, so she sees the “Drag Race” platform as a way to give back. “Giving a hand wherever you can in your community feels like a serve for me," she said.

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And anyone who follows drag knows that meet-and-greets after live shows can be grueling for the touring queens, but Gottmik still relishes them as a way to connect.

“I need to meet everyone and hear every story,” she said. Meeting fans so regularly inspires her to keep being open and honest about her own identity.

As for their faves on the show’s current 15th season? Gottmik immediately said frontrunner Sasha Colby; Hall agreed and also gave props to Houston queen Mistress Isabelle Brooks.

The rising hostility toward drag is dangerous, all the queens agree — but it’s a call to fight.

Hall compared the glut of discriminatory legislation in the U.S., specifically targeting trans people and drag performers, to global warming.

Wong, the moderator, cited some stats from The Trevor Project. There are more than 500 anti-LGBTQ bills in statehouses across the country, including dozens in Texas, he said. Those bills range from efforts to ban doctors from providing medical care for transgender youth, to bans on drag performances, despite drag’s centuries-old history.

The “ugly debates,” Wong said, are taking a toll on LGBTQ youth. According to The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization, 71% of LGBTQ youth and more than 80% of trans and nonbinary youth say that the current political climate is damaging their mental health.

It’s personal for Symone, who’s from Arkansas originally. That state is one of many where bills targeting trans youth and drag shows are under debate.

“I think of all the people back home,” Symone said. “I think about how drag literally saved my life.” She choked up talking about the detriment that such laws would cause to young queer people. “I went to prom in drag. That’s how I was able to finally express myself to people and people could finally see me.”

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Then, Symone had choice words: “(Expletive) Sarah Huckabee Sanders,” referring to the Republican governor of Arkansas and former Trump administration press secretary.

Hall pointed out that many queer people are already dealing with a lot in their lives, from family to finances to health care. The last thing Americans need, she said, is having to grapple with whether “being who they are or existing is a crime.”

She said that the subject does affect her mental health, but she knows it's her time to get into the fight. “Be the person you needed, she said, adding: “I’m ready to throw my hands up, honey.”

Gottmik expressed frustration at the conflation of drag and transgender identity. “Drag is my art and being trans is who I am every day,” she said. Citing another “Drag Race” alum, the performer and trans activist Peppermint, Gottmik theorized that most people behind these bills don’t even know a trans person.

“We’re not going anywhere, no matter what you think you’re going to do with these little bills, honey,” she said.

'We will always be here,' despite legislation, drag queens say.

The queens agreed that real equality would look like queer people being able to walk safely down the street without fear of judgment or harm for how they present or whom they love.

If they could address the lawmakers behind anti-LGBTQ bills, Gottmik would say, “Look how happy I am; look at my art that I’m doing,” and, “We’re not going to go home and back into the closet if you pass a law.”

Hall would urge them to spend quality time with queer people.

Symone: “Educate yourself. Know that we’re human and we have a right to exist.”

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The attacks on the LGBTQ community are about telling people how they can live their lives, Hall said.

“It’s like coming to somebody’s house and saying, ‘Move the couch,’” she said.

All three queens encouraged queer people to protect their mental health, to fight and to remain hopeful.

“Hold onto the hope that everything will be OK,” Symone said. “We will always be here. There’s a legion of us now.”

Hall said: “How high the stakes are in this country right now is not a time to flop.”

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Jaida Essence Hall, Symone, Gottmik talk drag bans at SXSW in Austin